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A HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

AN ELEMENTARY HISTORY 
OF ENGLAND 

With 85 Illustrations and 13 Maps. 
Crown 8vo, $0.80. 

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 

NEW YORK, LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 



E. WYATT-DAVIES, M.A. 




WITH FOURTEEN MAPS IN THE TEXT 



NEW IMPRESSION 



LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 
FOURTH AVENUE AND 30th STREET, NEW YORK 

LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS 
IQl6 






By Transfer 
Maritime Com m . 

SEP 3 ^ 



MATRI DILECTISSIMiE 

HOC SIGNUM 
PIETATIS ET AMORIS 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 
I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 
V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 



PAGE 

The Romans in Britain ... 3 

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest 7 

The Conversion of England 13 

The Supremacy of Mercia and the Rise of Wessex 19 
The Danish Invasion and the Struggle with 

Wessex 23 

The Reunion of England under Wessex ... 29 

The Danish Conquest 37 

The English Restoration and the Norman In- 
vasion 42 

William 1 49 

William II. ; Henry I. ; Stephen 56 

Henry II 69 

Richard I. ; John 85 

Henry III 97 

Edward 1 105 

Edward II 117 

Edward III. . 123 

Richard II 145 

Henry IV 152 

Henry V 158 

Henry VI. (1) The Loss of France 164 

Henry VI. (2) The Wars of the Roses .... 176 

Edward IV 181 



xii Contents. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXIII. Edward V. ; Richard III . . 188 

XXIV. Henry VII 193 

XXV. Henry VIII 201 

XXVI. Edward VI . . 221 

XXVII. Mary 226 

XXVIII. Elizabeth 233 

XXIX. James 1 259 

XXX. Charles I. (1) The Struggle between King 

and Parliament 270 

XXXI. Charles I. (2) The Civil War 281 

XXXII. The Commonwealth 291 

XXXIII. Charles II 303 

XXXIV. James II 315 

XXXV. William and Mary 326 

XXXVI. Anne 343 

XXXVII. George 1 355 

XXXVIII. George II. (1) Walpole and the Pelhams . . 362 
XXXIX. George II. (2) The Creation of the Colonial 

Empire 374 

XL. George III. (1) The Overthrow of the Whigs 

and the Loss of the American Colonies . 384 
XLI. George III. (2) William Pitt as Peace Minister 401 
XLII. George III. (3) The War of the French Revo- 
lution 408 

XLIII. George III. (4) The War with Napoleon and 

the Settlement of Europe 430 

XL1V. George IV. ; William IV 454 

. XLV. Victoria (i) National Progress 469 

XLVI. Victoria (2) Lord Derby, Lord Aberdeen, Lord 

Palmerston 483 

XLVII. Victoria (3) The Growth of Imperial Patriotism 497 

XLVHI. Edward VII. ; George V $H 

Index 521 



MAPS 

PAGE 

Roman Britain 2 

Saxon England . 18 

England from 1066-1485 48 

The Angevin Empire 70 

Scotland 109 

France from 1204-1453 129 

France from 1453-1789 202 

Ireland from 1 171- 1798 251 

England and Wales during the Civil Wars 282 

The Netherlands 342 

Spain and Portugai 346 

India 3 8 2 

North America, 1760- 1783 394 

The Crimean War ..... . . „ ....... 485 



GENEALOGIES 



PAGE 

The West Saxon Kings 22 

The Danish Kings - - 22 

The Descendants of Ethelred II 39 

The Norman and Angevin Kings 47 

The Later Plantagenets 116 

The Claim of Edward III. to the French Throne . . 127 

York and Lancaster . . 174, 175 

The Yorkist Rivals of Henry VII 192 

The Tudor Dynasty ....... 220 

The Stuart Dynasty 258 

The House of Suffolk 260 

The Spanish Succession Question 337 

The Hanoverian Dynasty 354 

The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Dynasty ....... 468 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 




Walker & Cockerell so. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ROMANS IN BRITAIN {B.C. $$-A.D. 410). 

i. The Invasion of Julius Caesar (b.c. 55). — It was not 
until the first century of the Christian era that Britain was 
brought definitely into contact with the beneficent and civilising 
influence of Rome, and that it became possible for the reign 
of law, which everywhere followed the Imperial standards, to 
extend its sway over the restless and disorganised tribes which 
occupied our island. Before, however, Britain definitely became 
a Roman colony, Rome made more than one effort to gain a 
footing. It was Rome's greatest general and statesman, Julius 
Caesar, who first led the Roman legions across the Channel, 
and thus strikingly brought before the minds of his compatriots 
the possibility of opening to Latin civilisation a country so 
little known that it appeared to them in the light of a new 
world. 

The Celts, who at the time of Caesar's invasion occupied 
Britain, were a portion of one of the great waves of Aryan 
tribes, which before the dawn of history had begun to spread 
over Europe. After conquering the Iberian peoples inhabiting 
the west of the Continent, the Celts appear to have carried their 
migration across the Channel about the year 500 B.C., reaching 
their new island home in two great divisions, the Goidels or 
Gaels, and the Brythons or Britons. The Goidels, the first 
to arrive, were gradually pressed west and north by their 
Brythonic kinsmen, until they occupied the western portion 
of our island and the opposing coast district of Ireland. The 
Brythons settled in the more fertile districts of the centre and 

3 B 2 



4 The Romans in Britain. 

east, and spread over the greater part of the Lowlands of 
Scotland. In the Highlands of Scotland and in Ireland the 
pre-Celtic race, the Iberians, maintained their independence, 
but in the more hilly parts of Britain they were absorbed or 
reduced to serfdom by the Goidels. The Brythons remained 
comparatively free from any intermingling with the older race. 
. During the three years preceding the invasion of Britain, 
Julius Caesar had been engaged in the conquest of Gaul, and 
in repelling the attacks of the German tribes from the other 
side of the Rhine. The subjugation of the Celts of Gaul drew 
him on to attack the Britons, who had rendered help to their 
kinsmen over the sea. Caesar, therefore, in the summer of 
55 B.C. crossed the Channel with an army of 10,000 men. A 
landing was effected where Deal now stands, but the destruc- 
tion of part of his fleet by a storm, and the sturdy resistance 
offered by the Britons, compelled him to withdraw to Gaul after 
spending three weeks in Britain. 

In the following year, B.C. 54, Caesar returned to the attack 
with a much larger force. He was met by a harassing guerilla 
warfare on the part of the southern British tribes, who acknow- 
ledged the leadership of Cassivelaunus, chieftain of the Catuvel- 
launi. But the steady discipline of the Roman troops naturally 
prevailed wherever the Britons could be brought to an open 
encounter, and Cassivelaunus, deserted by his allies south of 
the Thames, retreated to his stronghold near the modern St. 
Albans. Caesar, therefore, leaving a force to guard the fleet, 
struck north, crossed the Thames, and captured the British 
entrenchment. This was followed by the submission of Cassive- 
launus, who agreed to pay a tribute, and Caesar was able to 
leave Britain, taking with him British hostages as pledges that 
the Britons would not again interfere in Gaul. 

2. From the Invasion of Aulus Plautius to the 
Recall of Agricola (43-84 a.d). — For ninety-seven years 
Britain remained unmolested by Rome. During the civil 
wars which distracted the Roman Republic after the assassi- 
nation of Julius Caesar, the Romans were too much absorbed 
by domestic troubles to aim at foreign conquests. The Roman 



The Romans in Britain. 5 

state emerged from the struggles transformed into an Empire 
under the great-nephew of Julius Caesar. The new ruler, Caius 
Octavius Augustus, set his face against all projects of expansion, 
and his immediate successors followed his views. It was not 
till the reign of Claudius, the fourth Emperor, that the attempt 
at conquest was renewed. In 43 a.d. Aulus Plautius was sent 
to attack Caractacus and Togidumnus, the descendants of 
Cassivelaunus. By winning over the Regni of the south and 
the Iceni of the east the Romans were able to conquer the 
Catuvellauni. Togidumnus was slain, and Caractacus fled to 
South Wales. The Emperor Claudius himself visited Britain 
and received the submission of the British at Camolodunum, 
the modern Colchester. Under Ostorius Scapula, the successor 
of Aulus Plautius, the conquered tribes were gradually welded 
into a Roman province south of a line drawn from the Severn 
to the Wash, but the attempt to extend the Roman rule to 
South Wales failed. Ostorius had to content himself with 
building a line of forts along the mountainous frontiers of 
Wales, and died shortly after, worn out by the struggle. 

The revolt of the Iceni, 61 a.d., under their queen Boadicea, 
showed that the Roman rule was not yet firmly established. 
The oppressive government of Suetonius Paulinus, and the 
outrages on Boadicea and her daughters, goaded the Britons 
into revolt. The Roman colony of Camolodunum was put to 
the sword, a Roman legion was cut to pieces, and the massacre 
of 70,000 Romans bore testimony to the British hatred of the 
Roman domination. The vengeance was on an equally appal- 
ling scale, and 80,000 Britons died on the battle-field before 
the insurrection was stamped out. Rome, however, had learnt 
a lesson. Suetonius was recalled, and henceforward concilia- 
tory methods were adopted. 

The task of consolidating the Roman rule in Britain was 
completed by Julius Agricola. The conquest of Wales was 
followed by that of the north up to the district between the 
Firths of Forth and Clyde. A line of forts was built to guard 
this frontier, while Agricola penetrated further north, and broke 
down the resistance of the Caledonians, a mingled Gaelic and 



6 The Romans in Britain. 

Iberian people. When Agricola was recalled to Rome in 
84 a.d., the limits of Roman Britain had been fixed, and his 
successors, freed from military enterprises, could devote them- 
selves to the internal organisation of the province. 

3. The Roman Province of Britain. — Although Britain 
was never so completely Romanised as Gaul or Spain, it was 
organised on the familiar Roman plan. The country, after 
several experiments, was placed under one ruler, the Vicarius 
Britanniarum, who was subject to the Prefect of Gaul. Under 
the Vicarius there were five subordinates, each ruling over one 
district. Besides these civil rulers there were three high military 
officials entrusted with the defence of the province. Towns 
were built in large numbers, and their splendour is proved by 
the remains at London, York, Bath, and Chester. Assuming 
that the municipal arrangements were the same as in Gaul, 
we may picture the towns as governed by a Senate originally 
elected, but ultimately hereditary. The great Roman towns 
were linked by a splendid network of Roman roads. The 
mineral wealth of the country was worked, forests were cleared, 
and magnificent villas were built. A writer of the third century 
speaks of the flourishing condition of the country. He describes 
its high state of civilisation, and extols its wealth in minerals, 
and in flocks and herds. The production of corn was very 
great, and Rome could use Britain as a granary from which to 
draw supplies for the needs of other provinces. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

Caesar's invasions B.C. 55 and 54. 

Aulus Plautius sent A.D. 43. 

Revolt of the Iceni a.d. 61. 

Rule of Agricola A.D. 78-84. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ANGLO-SAXON CONQUEST (449-613). 

i. The Roman Empire and the German Races. — In 

the second century of the Christian era the Roman Empire 
stretched from the Euphrates to the Atlantic, and from the 
deserts of North Africa to the Highlands of Scotland. Under 
the Caesars, who ruled from 69 a.d. to 180 a.d., the Empire 
reached a pitch of prosperity never surpassed. Everywhere, 
as in Britain, tribal antagonisms tended to disappear before 
the Pax Romana. The Imperial Government was efficient 
without being oppressive. Large freedom of action was left to 
the 'provincial Governments, and by these in their turn to the 
Civitates, or units of local administration. The tendency was 
to extend the privilege of Roman citizenship to increasing 
masses of free-born subjects of the Empire. Political distinc- 
tions were based on wealth rather than on birth, and the 
plebeian from the provinces could rise to high office. 

But in the third century the Empire degenerated. A series 
of disputed successions convulsed the provinces. The armies 
on the frontiers set up their own candidates. In seventy-three 
years twenty-three emperors ruled, and of these twenty-one 
met a violent death. The provinces were raided by the 
Barbarians. The splendid machinery of government went 
near to breaking down, and as a consequence the Roman 
Peace vanished. The Empire was rescued from destruction 
by the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine the Great, and 
the Government regained its efficiency, but at the expense of 
the liberties of its subjects. A vast official system was created 
which drained the life-blood of the Empire. The cost of 

7 



8 The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 

maintaining the machinery of government was thrown upon 
the owners of land, and the smaller proprietors, to escape the 
burden, placed themselves in dependence on their richer 
neighbours. Society became divided into castes, and in con- 
sequence the position of every subject was determined by the 
stratum of society in which he was born. Such a system 
necessarily destroys individual enterprise, and reduces loyalty 
to the level of a passive and unintelligent obedience. 

Meanwhile across the borders of the Empire there was 
encamped a race of conquerors destined to bring fresh life to 
Western Europe. The Germans, another of the Aryan races, 
had moved westward until checked by the sea to the north, 
and by Roman arms on the south and west. They occupied 
Scandinavia, together with Central Europe east of the Rhine 
and north of the Danube. For many years they contented 
themselves with plundering raids into the rich southern lands. 
Many, also, of the German tribes were admitted into the service 
of the Roman Empire, and German soldiers guarded the 
frontiers from the attacks of their own kinsmen. The Roman 
army itself was thus largely composed of Germans. But 
gradually the pacific invasion tended to become a conquest, 
and one by one the Roman provinces fell into the hands of 
the barbarians. Thus Italy was conquered first by the Visi- 
goths, then by the Ostrogoths; Spain by the Vandals, then 
by the Visigoths; Gaul by the Visigoths, Burgundians, and 
Franks. 

The Roman province of Britain shared in the disasters of 
the rest of the Empire. From early times the Britons had 
been harassed by the Caledonians, or Picts, as they were now 
called, from beyond the wall of Antoninus, while the Scots, a 
race of marauding adventurers from the north of Ireland, 
raided the western coasts. To these were added in the third 
century a new enemy, the Saxons, who infested the eastern 
and southern shores of Britain with such serious results that 
a special officer, the Count of the Saxon Shore, had been 
appointed to guard the coast from the Humber to Beachy 
Head. From time to time Rome made efforts to defend 



The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 9 

Britain against the triple attack, but the increasing pressure on 
the heart of the Empire caused the withdrawal of legion after 
legion. On the death of the Emperor Theodosius (395) the 
Roman Empire had definitely fallen into two great divisions, 
East and West, each under its own ruler. The first of the 
Western emperors, Honorius, showed himself incompetent to 
defend Italy and Gaul against the Visigoths, and therefore 
could do nothing for an outlying province like Britain. In 
410 the Roman legions were finally withdrawn, and the 
Britons were authorised by Honorius to provide for their own 
defence. 

2, The Anglo-Saxon Invasion. — Three hundred and 
fifty years before the Anglo-Saxons undertook the conquest of 
Britain, the Roman historian, Tacitus, in his " Germania," 
gave an account of the institutions of the German races which 
may be taken probably as a fairly accurate description of the 
English in the fifth century. He describes the Germans as 
consisting of a number of tribes, proud of the purity of their 
blood, and having the same language, religion, and institutions. 
Some tribes had kings, who claimed divine descent, while 
others dispensed with royalty ; but in either case the tribe was 
governed by the assembly of the freemen which met at fixed 
periods, and decided all questions of peace, war, alliance, the 
election of the king and other officials. Each tribe was 
divided into districts, or pagi, and these were subdivided into 
villages, or vici. The chieftain, or warrior-magistrate, adminis- 
tered justice in the pagus with the aid of a hundred assessors, 
and each pagus sent a hundred warriors to the host. Tacitus 
also mentions a fourfold division of rank — noble, free, freed- 
men, and slaves. His description of a German tribe is that of 
a community of free warriors, governing themselves, without 
knowledge of city life, continually at war with neighbouring 
tribes, and following a rudimentary agriculture just sufficient 
for their actual needs. 

Of the three tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who 
conquered Britain, Tacitus only makes a vague reference to 
the first, but we know that in the second century the Saxons 



io The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 

occupied the district between the Elbe and Eider. To the 
north of them were the Angles, and beyond these the Jutes. 
The Saxons, an obscure tribe in the second century, gradually 
formed a powerful confederation of tribes who remained 
heathen and independent till conquered by Charlemagne late 
in the eighth century. 

The traditional account of the Anglo-Saxon conquest of 
Britain is that it was brought about by the action of Vortigern, 
the ruler of south-eastern Britain, who in 449 hired two Jutish 
chieftains, Hengist and Horsa, to defend him from the attacks 
of the Picts and Scots. Hitherto the Germans had been kept 
at bay by the fortresses of the Saxon shore, but this line of 
defence was now opened to them, and the inevitable quarrel 
between Vortigern and his defenders led to the seizure of the 
Island of Thanet by Hengist and a struggle which ended in 
the conquest of Kent. Horsa is said to have been killed at 
the battle of Aylesford, but Hengist survived for fifteen years, 
and in 488 left Kent to his son and successor. Meanwhile, in 
477, the kingdom of the South Saxons had been founded by 
Ella, who stormed Anderida (Pevensey), putting the inhabitants 
to the sword, and conquered the district from the sea to the 
forest, or Andreds-weald. This was followed in 495 by the 
foundation of the West Saxon kingdom under Cerdic. The in- 
vaders landed in Southampton Water, and after a long struggle 
firmly established themselves by a decisive victory at Charford. 

The success of the Saxons seems to have stimulated further 
migrations from Germany, for, while Cerdic was conquering 
Hampshire, another band of Saxons had descended on the 
left bank of the Thames, and created the kingdom of the East 
Saxons. Concurrently with this, the Angles, deserting in a 
body their Continental home, landed in the district north of 
the East Saxons, and divided the conquered territory into 
the land of the North Folk and South Folk. The union 
of the two districts, Norfolk and Suffolk, formed the kingdom 
of East Anglia. The majority of the Angles, however, spread 
still further north, and built up two kingdoms. The northern- 
most, called Bernicia, stretched from the Forth to the Tees, 



The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 1 1 

with its capital at Bamborough, while the southernmost, or 
Deira, was limited on the south by the Humber, and had 
York as its chief town. 

The Anglo-Saxon Conquest had now been a hundred years 
in progress, but Central and Western Britain was still held by 
the Britons. A great British victory at Mount Badon in 520 
had stopped for a time the southern Saxons. But a combina- 
tion of different Anglian war-bands worked their way up the 
Trent and founded the March kingdom of Mercia, thus gaining 
access to Central Britain. This was followed by two great 
victories, which rendered the British cause hopeless. Hitherto 
the Celts had held the western part of the island from the 
Clyde to Cornwall. But in 577, Ceawlin, king of the West 
Saxons, defeated the Britons at Deorham in Gloucestershire, 
captured the lower Severn valley with the towns of Gloucester, 
Cirencester and Bath, and was only stopped in his progress 
northward by a defeat on the borders of Cheshire. The final 
blow was dealt by the Anglian' Ethelfrith, who, after forming 
Deira and Bernicia into the kingdom of Northumbria, struck 
westward and overwhelmed the Britons at Chester (613). The 
Celts were now split into three divisions, Strathclyde, Wales, 
and Cornwall, separated by land held by their enemies. 

3. The Character of the Conquest. — There can be no 
doubt that the Anglo-Saxon invasion involved the destruction 
of the' greater part of the civilisation which had grown up 
under Roman rule. Probably much had disappeared during 
the anarchy which followed the withdrawal of the Roman 
legions. The Britons, torn by their suicidal struggles, worn 
out by pestilence and famine and by the attacks of the Picts 
and Scots, must have relapsed to some extent into barbarism. 
The wonder is that for one hundred and fifty years they were 
able to offer so sturdy a resistance to the Anglo-Saxons. The 
extent to which the Celtic population was destroyed is a matter 
of dispute: it is, on the whole, probable that the earlier conquests 
involved the extermination of the native population except 
where forest or hill fortresses rendered this impossible. But as 
the conquest progressed westward, the inhabitants were retained 



12 The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. 

as slaves, and in this way some aspects of the older civilisation 
were preserved. Such arts as survived would be connected 
mainly with agriculture, for abundant evidence proves the 
destruction of the great Roman cities. Chester, after the 
victory of Ethelfrith, was a ruin for three hundred years ; 
London is lost sight of for over a century, during which it 
was probably deserted ; and a similar fate befell York, Lincoln, 
and Verulam. Everywhere, in fact, the Anglo-Saxon element 
asserted itself as the dominant factor, forcing on the conquered 
British its language and institutions. Hence a marked contrast 
between the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britain and the Frank 
conquest of Gaul, for in the latter case the Franks, while 
forming the ruling caste, accepted the religion and much of the 
civilisation of their Gallo-Roman subjects. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. . 

First German invasions 449-477, 495. 

British victory of Mount Badon . . . 520. 

Battle of Deorham 577. 

Battle of Chester 613. 



CHAPTER III. 

FROM THE CONVERSION OF ENGLAND TO THE SYNOD 
OF WHITBY (597-664). 

i. The Church and the Barbarians.— The fifth century 
marked the greatest crisis in the history of the Catholic 
Church before the Reformation. Hitherto the Church had 
made her way through the world, facing persecution under the 
pagan Roman Empire, but in the end winning that Empire to 
Christ. Side by side with her progress towards victory, she 
had carried on an endless but successful struggle with the 
heresies which sprang up in denial of the central truths of her 
teaching with regard to the Person of her Divine Founder. 
But the inrush of the barbarians threatened her very existence 
in the fifth and sixth centuries. The majority of the conquering 
race had been converted to Arianism before they moved south 
into the Empire, and therefore, with their conquest of Italy, 
Gaul, Spain, and North Africa, it seemed that the Church 
would be crushed out of life by the heresy which struck 
directly at her Divine mission. The Church, however, again 
asserted herself triumphantly, and the religion of the vanquished 
Roman provincials slowly but surely took captive the victorious 
Visigoth, Burgundian, and Lombard. Before this had been 
effected, the conversion of Clovis, King of the Franks, not from 
heresy but from heathenism, gave to the Church and the 
Papacy the support of the most powerful of the German races, 
and rendered possible the spread of Christianity amongst the 
pagan Germans and Anglo-Saxons. 

2. The Mission of St. Augustine. — In 590, Gregory, at 
that time abbot of the monastery on the Caelian hill at Rome, 

13 



14 The Conversion of England. 

was raised to the Papacy. Several years before he had been 
moved to compassion at the sight of some English youths 
exposed for sale as slaves, and had asked permission to go as 
a missionary to their heathen compatriots. This had proved 
impossible, but now as Pope he determined to organise the 
conversion of the English. He commissioned Augustine, prior 
of the Caelian monastery, as the leader of the missionary band. 
In April, 597, Augustine landed at Ebbsfleet in the Isle of 
Thanet, already memorable as the landing-place of Hengist. 
The path for the missionaries had already been opened 
by the marriage of Bertha, daughter of the Frankish king, 
Charibert of Paris, with Ethelbert, King of Kent. Through her 
influence Augustine was received in audience by Ethelbert, 
who gave to the missionaries the ruined church of St. Martin 
outside Canterbury, with permission to make converts. On 
the Feast of Pentecost, 597, Ethelbert himself was baptised, 
and his example was followed by a great number of his 
subjects. Augustine was now consecrated Bishop by the 
Archbishop of Aries, and chose Canterbury as the centre of 
his diocese. The ancient British church of St. Saviour was 
rebuilt as the cathedral church, and a monastery was built 
dedicated to the Apostles Peter and Paul. Gregory, on hearing 
of the success of Augustine, sent to him the pallium, as a 
recognition of his dignity as Metropolitan. The Pope also 
drew up regulations for the Anglo-Saxon Church. Looking on 
England as one nation, he ordered that there should be two 
archbishoprics, London and York, each with twelve suffragan 
bishoprics. The senior of the two archbishops was to have 
precedence over the other. The slowness of the conversion 
of the other English kingdoms frustrated this scheme, and 
Augustine was only able to establish sees at Rochester and 
London, while Canterbury remained the mother-see of the 
Anglo-Saxon Church. 

3- Augustine and the British Church.— Gregory, in 
his letters to Augustine, had ordered him to enter into relation 
with the British Christians in the unconquered western and 
northern parts of the island, whom, with their bishops, the Pope 



The Conversion of England. 15 

expressly placed under the authority of Augustine. During 
the long struggle with the Anglo-Saxons, the British Church, 
isolated from the rest of Western Christendom, had become 
disorganised. On two points of discipline — the calculation of 
the date of Easter, and certain forms connected with the rite 
of Baptism — British practice was defective. A conference was 
held between Augustine and the Welsh bishops, at which the 
latter were asked to give up their erroneous practices and join 
in preaching to the heathen Saxons. This was refused, and 
the Celtic Christians of Wales and Cornwall, unlike the Celts 
of Gaul, had no part in the conversion of their pagan con- 
querors. Their Church, once the parent of saints and martyrs, 
sank into insignificance. 

4. The Conversion of Northumbria. — Augustine's rule 
in England was short, for he died in 604 ; but he had achieved 
the foundation of the Church in England, which for nearly a 
thousand years was to mould the national life and be the 
channel of Divine grace for the English people. In 616 the 
death of Ethelbert of Kent was followed by a heathen reaction, 
which put to the test the soundness of Augustine's work. 
Mellitus, Bishop of London, was driven from his see by Red- 
wald, sub-king of East Anglia, and with Justus of Rochester 
took refuge in Gaul. In Kent itself King Eadbald, the son 
of Ethelbert, relapsed temporarily into heathenism. But the 
reaction did not last ; for Eadbald returned to his allegiance, 
and the marriage of his daughter Ethelburga to Edwin, King 
of Northumbria, 625, gave a new opening for the spread of the 
Faith. With the princess went her chaplain Paulinus, and 
after a year's hesitation Edwin and the Northumbrian Witan 
submitted to the Church. For six years Paulinus, who had 
been consecrated bishop, laboured in the vast district from 
the Forth to the Humber. Meanwhile the conversion of the 
other kingdoms was being carried on; East Anglia was 
evangelised by the Burgundian monk Felix, and Wessex by 
the Italian Birinus, sent by Pope Honorius. 

5. The Struggle with Heathen Mercia. — Paganism 
was not to succumb without finding a champion. Edwin of 



1 6 The Conversion of England. 

Northumbria at the time of his conversion was acknowledged 
as overlord (Bretwalda) of all Britain, except Kent, but in 627 
a coalition against him was formed between Penda, heathen 
king of Mercia, and Cadwallon, the Christian King of North 
Wales. Edwin was defeated and killed at Heathfield in 633, 
and Northumbria was overrun by the victors. Paulinus, 
taking with him Queen Ethelburga, took refuge in Kent, where 
he died. Meanwhile, the struggle against the hostile coalition 
was carried on by Oswald, younger son of the great Ethelfrith, 
who had been brought up by the Irish monks at St. Columba's 
monastery at Iona. Gathering a small band of followers, he 
attacked and killed Cadwallon at Heavenfield, near Hexham 
(635). For two years Oswald ruled over Northumbria, and to 
revive Christianity sent to Iona for help. Under the great 
saint Aidan, Lindisfarne, not far from the royal city Bam- 
borough, became the centre of a powerful Christian revival, 
which spread throughout Northumbria, and was fostered by 
the piety of Oswald and the unwearying zeal of Aidan. 

Oswald was, however, destined to fall like Edwin, for Penda, 
in 642, returned to the attack and killed his rival at Maserfield, 
probably in Shropshire. His brother Oswy, the last of the 
sons of Ethelfrith, maintained a precarious throne for thirteen 
years, till, in 655, he defeated Penda at Winweedfield. Mercia 
soon reasserted its independence under Wulfere, Penda's son, 
but the cause of heathenism was dead, and the Mercians, with 
their king, became Christians. 

6. The Synod of Whitby (664). — All England, except 
Sussex, was now Christian, but for the moment English 
Christianity was threatened by the dangers of a schism. The 
missionaries from the Continent, who had converted the south 
and east, came into collision on points of discipline with the 
Irish evangelists of the north. To secure uniformity, Oswy 
summoned a conference of both parties to Whitby. The views 
of the northern missionaries were upheld by Colman, while 
the Roman discipline was maintained by James, the disciple 
of Paulinus, and the young Wilfrid, afterwards Bishop of York, 
who appealed to the universal practice of Catholic Christendom. 



The Conversion of England. 17 

Oswy himself cut short the debate by declaring his adhesion 
to the institutions of St. Peter. "Are you both agreed," 
demanded Oswy of the disputants, " that the keys of heaven 
were given by the Lord to Peter?" Wilfrid and Colman 
answered, " Yes." " Then I will not decide against the door- 
keeper," Oswy declared, "lest when I come to the gates of 
heaven, he who holds the keys should not open to me." The 
decision was of supreme importance, even from the secular 
point of view, for it established through the Church the only 
unity which was as yet possible in England. A contrary 
decision would have perpetuated the divisions of the Heptarchy, 
and the English Church, like the Church in Ireland, would 
have sunk into dependence on petty local chieftains. As it 
was, the organising influence of Roman traditions and practice 
infused new vigour into Church and State. English Church- 
men under the protection of the See of Peter went forth to the 
heathen Germans, and it was the great Englishman, Winfrith, 
better known as St. Boniface, a native of Devonshire, who, with 
the sanction of Gregory II., organised the Church in Germany. 
Shortly after the Synod of Whitby, Pope Vitalian appointed 
a Greek, Theodore of Tarsus, to the Archbishopric of Canter- 
bury. Under Theodore the reorganisation of the Anglo-Saxon 
Church was undertaken. National synods of the clergy were 
established, monasteries were founded, and the majority of the 
unwieldly dioceses were split up. Learning was fostered, and 
England became the home of poet and scholar. Anglo-Saxon 
literature was rendered illustrious by the name of the Venerable 
Bede, whose Ecclesiastical History records the beginnings of 
our race, by Caedmon the humble dependent of the Abbey of 
Whitby, who composed a paraphrase of the Old Testament, 
and by Alcuin, the friend and adviser of Charlemagne. 

CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Landing of St. Augustine 597. 

Conversion of Northumbria 626. 

Synod of Whitby 664. 

Supremacy of Northumbria 616-685. 

C 



SAXON ENGLAND. 

English Miles 
o 10 20 40 60 80 100 




Walker * Cockerell sc. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SUPREMACY OF MERC I A AND THE RISE 
OF WESSEX. 

i. The Decline of Northumbria. — On the death of Oswy, 
in 670, his son Egfrith succeeded and maintained the 
Northumbrian supremacy till his death. He conquered the 
Welsh of Cumbria, and made descents on the coast of Ireland. 
His military expeditions, however, culminated in an attack on 
the Picts, which ended disastrously. The Northumbrians were 
defeated at Nechtansmere in 685, and Egfrith was amongst the 
slain. The history of Northumbria during the last century of 
its independence is a record of treachery and rebellion. Out 
of fourteen kings, only one died in peaceful possession of the 
throne ; the rest were either killed or deposed by their subjects. 
The overlordship held by Northumbria now passed to Mercia. 
2. Wilfrid, Bishop of York. — The reign of Egfrith was 
also rendered memorable by a long quarrel with Wilfrid, 
whom we have seen playing an important part at the Synod 
of Whitby. Since then, Wilfrid had been appointed Bishop 
of York, and had visited Gaul to receive consecration. In 
his absence Oswy had nominated the saintly Chad to the same 
see. Wilfrid, therefore, on his return, retired to his monastery 
at Ripon. On the arrival of Theodore, however, Chad, at the 
bidding of the archbishop, retired, and shortly after, at the 
request of Wulfere of Mercia, was appointed to the new see 
of Lichfield. Wilfrid was left to rule over the vast Northum- 
brian diocese which stretched from the Forth to -the Humber, 
and he soon came into collision with Theodore over the 
question of the division of his diocese. Wilfrid at once left 
England and laid his case before Pope Agatho, who, having 
also received a statement of Theodore's views, gave judgment 

19 



20 The Supremacy of Mercia. 

for Wilfrid. The bishop, therefore, returned to his diocese, 
bringing with him a papal Bull, ordering his restoration. Egfrith 
and the Northumbrian Witan refused to recognise the papal 
injunctions, and Wilfrid was banished. He finally took refuge 
amongst the heathen South Saxons, and by his preaching he 
converted them to the Faith. On the death of Egfrith, Wilfrid 
returned to York, and on the recommendation of Theodore 
was recognised by Egfrith's successor, Aldfrid. The intrigues 
of his enemies again drove Wilfrid to appeal to Rome, and 
ultimately, on the advice of Bertwald, the successor of Arch- 
bishop Theodore, and in accordance with the dying wishes of 
Aldfrid, a compromise was arranged in 705, and Wilfrid ruled 
the diocese of Hexham till his death, four years later. 

3. The Supremacy of Mercia (757-825). — With the 
decline of Northumbria, Mercia came to the front under three 
strong kings, Wulfere, Ethelbald, and OfFa. Wulfere, the 
son of Penda, besides carrying on the struggle with Egfrith of 
Northumbria with varying success, waged war with the West 
Saxons, from whom he conquered the Isle of Wight. This he 
made over to the king of the South Saxons, who at Wulfere's 
persuasion had become a Christian. Wulfere's brother Ethelred 
overran Kent, and on the death of Wulfere ruled Mercia till 
704. Two short reigns then followed before the accession of 
Ethelbald, under whom Mercia dominated England from the 
Humber to the Channel. But the kings of Wessex struggled 
hard for independence, and in 753, at the battle of Burford, 
Ethelbald was defeated. Four years later he was killed 
by his own followers. His successor, Ofifa (757-796), saved 
for a time the supremacy of Mercia. After putting down 
his domestic enemies, he defeated the Kentish men and West 
Saxons. He then turned his arms against the Welsh, and drove 
them beyond the Wye. English settlers colonised the districts 
between the -Wye and Severn, and a rampart, " Offa's Dyke," 
from the mouth of the Wye to the estuary of the Dee, protected 
the colonists from the attacks of the Welsh. Holding that the 
supremacy of Mercia should be marked by ecclesiastical dis- 
tinctions, Ofifa applied to Pope Hadrian I. for permission to 



The Supremacy of Mercia. 21 

raise Lichfield to an archbishopric. Two legates were sent, 
and at the Council of Chelsea, 787, the ecclesiastical province 
of Canterbury was divided, six dioceses being placed under the 
Archbishop of Lichfield. The change, however, was shortlived, 
and at the request of OrTa's successor, Leo III. in 803 reversed 
the action of Hadrian. But for the time being OrTa was all- 
powerful. All England, including Northumbria, acknowledged 
his overlordship. The kings of Wessex, Northumbria, and 
East Anglia married princesses of the Mercian royal house. 
Abroad, OrTa's position was important, and he was able to corre- 
spond with Charlemagne on terms of equality. Offa died in 
796, and was succeeded by his son Cenwulf, under whom the 
power of Mercia declined. 

4. Egbert. — During Offa's reign Egbert, a prince of the 
house of Cerdic, had taken refuge at the court of Charlemagne, 
and had served in the Frank armies. At his accession in 802 
he brought to the West Saxon throne a knowledge of politics 
and war which enabled him to raise Wessex to supremacy. 
He first attacked the Welsh of Cornwall, and forced them to 
submission. He then turned against the Mercians, and defeated 
them at Ellandune (825). This victory was followed by the 
conquest of Kent and East Anglia, and by the submission of 
Northumbria. In 828 Egbert invaded North Wales, and with 
its conquest Strathclyde alone of the three British districts 
remained independent. 

From his career of conquest Egbert was now recalled by a 
new danger. The Danes, who had first appeared in England 
in Offa's reign (787), were now becoming formidable. A Danish 
fleet entered the Dart, and defeated the West Saxons, but, on 
their returning to the attack, Egbert by careful preparation was 
able to defeat them at Hingston Down, near Plymouth, and 
drive them to their ships. Egbert died in 839. 

CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Nechtansmere 685. 

Supremacy of Mercia 757-825. 

First Danish invasion 787. 

Accession of Egbert 802. 

Battle of Ellandune 825. 



THE WEST SAXON KINGS. 

Egbert, 
802-839. 

I 

Ethelwulf, 

839-858. 



i r 1 1 

Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred I., Alfred, 
858-860. 860-866. 866-871. 871-901. 

Edward the Elder, 
901-925. 

L__ 

I 



Athelstan, 
925-940. 



I 

Edmund I., 
940-946. 

I 



Edred, 
946-955. 



Edwy, 
955-959- 



Edgar, 
959-975- 



Edward the Martyr, 
975-979- 



I 

Ethelred II., 

979-1016. 

I 



Edmund II. (" Ironside "), Edward the Confessor, 

1016. 1042-1066. 



THE DANISH KINGS OF ENGLAND. 

Canute, 
1016-1035. 



Harold I. 
1035-1040 



Hardicanute, 
1 040- 1 042 



CHAPTER V. 

THE DANISH INVASION AND THE STRUGGLE 
WITH WESSEX. 

I. The Danes. — In the ninth century the civilisation of 
England, like that of the rest of Western Europe, was exposed 
to a new danger by the incursions of the Northmen, or Danes. 
The Scandinavian peninsula, Jutland, and the islands of the 
Baltic district were occupied at this time by another of the 
great family of German tribes. At this period the Northmen 
were still heathen, and in the looseness of their political organi- 
sations and the warlike character of their life they resembled 
the Saxons of the fifth century. Their skill as seamen and 
their strenuous courage are seen in the fact that they colonised 
Iceland, established settlements in Greenland, and are believed 
to have penetrated as far as North America. On the Frank 
Empire, crumbling to pieces under the weak successors of 
Charlemagne, they fell with terrific force, and accelerated its 
downfall. Coming at first simply as pirates, content with 
plunder, they gradually formed settlements, and their success 
culminated in the foundation of the Duchy of Normandy in 
France under Rollo, and the conquest of England under 
Canute. Their first appearance in England was as enemies 
of Christianity and destroyers of English civilisation, but their 
conversion at the end of the ninth century removed the greatest 
danger, and enabled them to play their part in the national life, 
into which they infused greater vigour and enterprise. More- 
over, their conquest of the north and east, though involving 
for a time a relapse into barbarism, had at least one beneficial 
result, in that it stamped out the old tribal distinctions, and 



24 The Danish Invasion. 

thus paved the way for a real union of all England under 
Edgar. 

2. The Danes in England.— Although their piratical 
attacks on the English coasts are recorded as having taken 
place in the eighth century, the full force of the Danish attack 
was not felf till the middle of the ninth century. As we have 
seen, Egbert was able to close his prosperous reign by defeating 
the Danes at Hingston Down, and thus to secure a short 
breathing space. Egbert was succeeded by his son Ethelwulf 
(839-858), the pupil of St. Swithin, later on Bishop of 
Winchester. Year after year, with varying fortunes, the Danes 
returned to the attack. In three great battles, Rochester, 
Canterbury, and London, the English were defeated, and the 
Danes, becoming bolder, swept round the coast in all directions, 
attacked Northumbria and penetrated into Mercia. In 851 
they settled down to the permanent conquest of England, and 
for the first time wintered in the Isle of Thanet. Three hundred 
and fifty ships of the Vikings sailed up the Thames, and London 
and Canterbury were sacked. Surrey was invaded, but at 
Ockley the Danes sustained a severe defeat at the hands of 
Ethelwulf. This and other successes checked for a time the 
Danish advance, and enabled Ethelwulf to undertake a pilgrim- 
age to Rome, taking with him his youngest son, Alfred. On 
his return he was compelled by the ambition of his eldest son, 
Ethelbald, to agree to a partition of his kingdom, which left to 
him only Kent and Sussex. He died two years later. 

3. Ethelbald, Ethelbert, Ethelred (858-871).— The 
reigns of the three eldest sons of Ethelwulf only covered 
fourteen years, but they were years of untold misery and 
disaster. Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex were overrun by 
the Danes, and Winchester was sacked. In 866 a combined 
attack on England was made by a great confederation of 
Danish chieftains. Northumbria was attacked, and after a 
struggle succumbed. The north was partitioned amongst 
the conquerors, and pagan worship was restored in the district 
where Paulinus, Aidan and Wilfrid had preached. Meanwhile 
East Anglia had been conquered and its sub-king Edmund 



The Danish Invasion. 25 

put to death for refusing to abjure the Faith. Everywhere the 
destruction of churches and monasteries marked the Danish 
advance. 

Wessex, under her king Ethelred, was now fighting for her 
very existence. In 870 the "Great Army" of the Danes 
concentrated against her, and met with a fierce resistance. 
The Danes, sailing up the Thames, entrenched themselves near 
Reading, and the attempt of Ethelred to dislodge them failed 
disastrously; but on the Danes moving in their turn to the 
attack, they were met by Ethelred and his youngest brother 
Alfred at Ashdown in Berkshire, and were routed. Still the 
attacks continued, and the Danes, constantly reinforced by 
fresh bands of Vikings, pressed on. Ethelred was defeated in 
871 at Basing and Merton, and in the latter engagement was 
mortally wounded. 

4. Alfred (871-901). — Alfred, the youngest of the four 
sons of Ethelwulf, was born at Wantage in 849. In his fifth 
year he had been taken to Rome, and had been anointed king 
by Leo IV. Although not physically strong, his mind was 
active, and the education he received coloured the whole of 
his life with a love of learning. At the age of twenty he 
married Elswitha, a descendant of the royal house of Mercia. 
In spite of the mysterious disease which afflicted him, he threw 
himself with passionate ardour into the struggle against the 
Danes. His was the organising hand which enabled the West 
Saxons to offer so determined a resistance under Ethelred, and 
on the death of his brother, Alfred was unanimously called to 
the throne of Wessex. His position was most precarious, for 
the nine great battles which had been fought in 871 had ended 
with the death of Ethelred at Merton, and the subsequent 
defeat of Alfred himself at Wilton. The young king was 
compelled to purchase a respite from his conquerors, which 
they made use of in order to complete the conquest of Mercia. 
All England was now theirs, except Wessex, and in 877, under 
their kings Hubba and Guthrum, they returned to the attack. 
For two years the struggle raged, but the steady pressure of 
the Danish armies, and the great mobility which the command 



26 The Danish Invasion. 

of the sea gave to them, made the West Saxon cause appear 
hopeless. Alfred himself was forced to take refuge in the 
island of Athelney, in the marshes of Somersetshire. Meanwhile 
Guthrum occupied an entrenched position at Chippenham, and 
Hubba set out to attack Devonshire. But the West Saxon resist- 
ance was still unbroken, for Hubba's army was destroyed by the 
men of Devon, and Alfred, gathering the remnants of his loyal 
followers, flung himself upon Guthrum, and defeated the Danes 
at Ethandune. Guthrum, besieged in Chippenham, was forced 
to come to terms, and the Peace of Wedmore (878) was the 
result. By the Treaty England was divided between Wessex 
and the Danes. The dividing line was to run along the 
Thames to the mouth of the Lea; then up the Lea to its 
source ; then, striking across to Bedford, it was to follow the 
Ouse till it crossed Watling Street; and then along Watling 
Street to the Welsh border. Alfred thus surrendered a 
nominal rule over Northumbria, East Anglia, Essex and the 
eastern part of Mercia, but he regained Wessex, increased by 
the addition of nine counties west of Watling Street. As part 
of the settlement, Guthrum became a Christian. 

The Peace of Wedmore, by recognising the position of the 
Danes, turned them from a horde of destroyers into com- 
paratively peaceful settlers. Their conversion to Christianity 
paved the way for a union with their subjects in the Danish 
districts — or Danelagh — a union which was rendered easy by 
the fact that differences in language, constitutions, and law, 
were not great. For Wessex the Treaty was still more im- 
portant. It put an end to a devastating struggle which had 
been in progress for the greater part of a century. Wessex, 
relieved from the pressure of war, rapidly recovered under 
the wise reforms of Alfred. Education was revived by the 
foundation of schools and monasteries, and the Church, which 
had suffered so terribly that religious learning was almost 
extinct, was restored under the rule of good bishops, native 
and foreign. The court of Alfred became a centre of learning 
and an example for his subjects of domestic virtues. Literature 
was fostered, and under Alfred's guidance Bede's "Ecclesiastical 



The Danish Invasion. 27 

History," Boethius' " Consolations of Philosophy/ and the 
" Pastoral of Pope Gregory " were translated into English, 
Greatest of all gifts which after-times owe to Alfred is the 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a compilation of historical records 
running back to the Anglo-Saxon Conquest which he ordered 
to be drawn up and to be continued from year to year. As 
a lawgiver Alfred's reputation in later times caused him to be 
the traditional founder of many institutions, but in reality, 
beyond the work of revision, he did little. With his internal 
reforms Alfred combined measures for external defence. The 
Saxons, once dangerous, like the Danes, as sea-rovers, had 
neglected naval defence ; and one of Alfred's earliest acts on 
his accession was to set about the creation of a navy. In 875 
his fleet had done good service against the Danes, and he now 
formed a definite plan for the organisation of a permanent 
navy. Ships of a larger size were built, and foreign sailors 
were encouraged to come over as captains of the fleet. 
At the same time the national militia, or Fyrd, was reor- 
ganised and divided into two parts, which served in turn, 
thus avoiding the danger of depriving the land of its 
cultivators. 

The settlement made at Wedmore remained unchanged till 
892, when a fresh army of adventurers, after an unsuccessful 
campaign on the Continent under Hastings, made a descent on 
England. The invaders, however, separated in two great 
divisions, one establishing itself at Appledore in Kent, the 
other at Milton. Alfred marched into Kent, and placed him- 
self between the two camps. Although he succeeded in 
dislodging his enemies from their positions, a desultory struggle 
continued for five years, during which the Danes pushed up 
the Thames and along the Severn as far as Montgomeryshire. 
At Buttington a combined force of Welsh and English attacked 
and defeated them, and the war gradually died down. In 897 
the Danes abandoned the attempt to conquer the south, and 
either settled in their own district, the Danelagh, or sailed 
away to attack France. For the last three years of the reign the 
land was in peace. Alfred died in 901. 



28 The Danish Invasion. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Beginning of Danish Conquest 851. 

Invasion of Wessex by the Great Army . . 870. 

Battle of Ashdown 871. 

Battle of Ethandune 878. 

Peace of Wedmore 878. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE REUNION OF ENGLAND UNDER WESSEX. 

i. Edward the Elder (901-925). — The history of England 
in the earlier half of the tenth century is marked by a struggle 
on the part of the West Saxon kings to reconquer the Danelagh. 
The claim of Alfred's heir, Edward, generally called " The 
Elder," was opposed by Ethelwald, the heir of Ethelred, Alfred's 
predecessor, and, being rejected by the Witan, Ethelwald con- 
spired with the Danes against his cousin. The Danes poured 
over the border into Wessex, but were defeated, and their attack 
on Kent, although marked by victory, was accompanied by the 
death of Ethelwald, whose claim they had espoused. Peace 
was therefore made. 

Edward now settled down to the reconquest of Mercia and 
East Anglia. In Mercia he was supported by his sister Ethel- 
fleda and her husband, Ealdorman Ethelred, who had been 
placed by Alfred over the Mercian part of his dominions. 
Ethelred died in 912, but his widow continued to rule as 
" Lady of the Mercians." A concerted movement was made 
by Edward and Ethelfleda from the east and west respectively, 
and as the frontier was pushed forward it was secured by a line 
of "burghs," or fortified outposts. Ethelfleda's attack was 
directed against two of the " Danish Boroughs," Derby and 
Leicester, which she captured. Edward meanwhile seized 
Bedford and Huntingdon, and forced Northampton and Cam- 
bridge to submission. On the death of Ethelfleda (918) 
Edward took Mercia into his own hands, and, pushing north- 
ward, took from the Danes Nottingham, Stamford, and Lincoln. 
The Danish resistance at once gave way, and Edward received 

29 



30 The Reunion of England under Wessex. 

recognition as overlord not only from the Northumbrian and 
East Anglian Danes, but from the Welsh of Strathclyde and 
from the Scots. When Edward died in 925 he ruled directly 
over England from the Humber to the Channel, and was 
acknowledged as nominally supreme over the whole island. 

2. Athelstan (925-940). — Under this king, Edward's 
eldest son, the expansion of the West Saxon dominions con- 
tinued. He gave his sister Edith in marriage to Sihtric. the 
Danish king of Northumbria, and on the death of Sihtric 
seized his dominions. The dispossessed son of Sihtric formed 
a coalition with Constantine, king of the Scots, and with the 
Welsh of Strathclyde. In 937 Athelstan met his enemies at 
Brunanburh, the site of which is not known. The overwhelming 
victory gained by Athelstan over his enemies settled the fate of 
Northumbria and made Athelstan the first real king of all 
England. The greatness of his position is seen in his close 
relations with the kings of the Continent. He made his influ- 
ence felt by supporting his ward Haco, the claimant to the 
throne of Norway, and another ward, Alan of Brittany, owed 
his dominions to the protection of the English king. One of 
Athelstan's sisters married Otto the Great, king of Germany, 
and another Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks. 

3. Edmund (940-946). Edred (946-955). — Athelstan 
having died without direct heirs, his brother Edmund suc- 
ceeded. The Danes of Northumbria at once revolted, and sent 
for Anlaf, son of their former king, Sihtric. The rebellion was 
soon put down, and Edmund followed this success by con- 
quering Strathclyde, which he made over to Malcolm, king of 
the Scots, to be held by the latter as a dependency of the 
English Crown. In 946 Edmund was assassinated, and was 
succeeded by his brother Edred, under whom the taming of 
Northumbria was finally completed. The government of the 
district was reorganised, and Northumbria was divided into 
two earldoms, which were granted, one to Osulf, an English- 
man, the other to Malcolm I. of Scotland. 

4. Edwy (955-959). — During the reign of Edred, Dunstan, 
the first of a long line of great ecclesiastical statesmen, had 



The Reunion of England under Wessex. 31 

come to the front. Dunstan, a native of Somerset, had been 
brought up at the monastery of Glastonbury, and under the 
protection of Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been 
introduced at the court of Athelstan. Jealousy of his com- 
manding abilities had caused the formation at court of a 
powerful faction against him, and in consequence he withdrew 
to Glastonbury, and, abandoning civil life, became a religious. 
He was recalled to court by Edmund, who conferred on him 
the Abbey of Glastonbury, and he became one of the chief 
advisers of Edmund, and subsequently of Edred. The acces- 
sion of Edwy, a youth of sixteen, brought Dunstan's enemies 
again into power. Edwy refused the guidance of Dunstan, 
and the breach between them was widened by Edwy's marriage 
with Elgiva, whose relationship to the king was within the pro- 
hibited degrees. The Church denounced the marriage, and 
Edwy retaliated by driving Dunstan out of England and by 
seizing his abbey. A general revolt followed in Northumbria 
and Mercia in favour of Edgar, Edwy's brother, and after a 
short struggle Edwy was forced to acknowledge Edgar as 
king of England north of the Thames. Edgar at once called 
Dunstan to his court, and the Abbot of Glastonbury was made 
successively Bishop of Worcester and London. Edwy's death, 
soon after, saved the cause of union, and under Edgar England 
was reunited under one king. 

5. Edgar (959~975)' — The reign of Edgar was unclouded 
by domestic or foreign wars, and this fact has earned for him 
the title of " the Peaceful." The prolonged peace was largely 
due to the fact that the Northumbrian Danes had abandoned 
their dream of independence, and had been the first to join 
with the Mercians in raising Edgar to the throne. Through- 
out his reign he showed marked favour to his northern subjects, 
whom he admitted to high offices, secular and ecclesiastical. 
How far his policy was due to Dunstan is not known, but it is 
certain that king and minister worked hand-in-hand for the 
cause of reform in Church and State. The former had never 
recovered from the disasters of the Danish invasions, and in the 
Danelagh the great monasteries, which had done so much for 



32 The Reunion of England under Wessex. 

the conversion and civilisation of England, had been destroyed, 
and their lands confiscated. By the secular clergy the 
canons of the Church prescribing celibacy were frequently 
ignored, and the clergy were accused of giving themselves over 
to a life of secular interests and indulgence. Dunstan, who 
in 960 had become Archbishop of Canterbury, made his 
power felt in sweeping reforms. Throughout Europe, the 
great Benedictine reform, which sprang from the Burgundian 
convent of Cluny, was now causing a revival of monastic 
life, and, under Dunstan's guidance, the movement spread to 
England. Monasteries were founded, and in a few years Ely, 
Peterborough, and Thorney regained their former position. 
The married clergy were expelled from the cathedrals and 
replaced by monks. The revival of monastic life brought 
with it a renewal of learning and literature, and the Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicle, which had dwindled to bare outlines, now 
became a detailed source of contemporary events recorded by 
the monastic writers. 

Under Edgar and Dunstan the State prospered in an equal 
degree. Justice was firmly administered, and Edgar's Ordi- 
nance of the Hundred reorganised the subdivisions of the shires, 
and laid on them the duty of repressing crimes. The Dane- 
lagh retained its own legal customs, but Englishman and Dane 
were treated alike. Three great fleets patrolled the coasts, 
south, east, and west, and preserved England from the attacks 
of the Northmen. In 973 Edgar was solemnly crowned at 
Bath, and at Chester received the homage of the vassal kings 
of Scotland, Cumbria, Wales, and Man. The story that he 
was rowed on the Dee by eight sub-kings shows the impression 
he made on after times, and how truly he justified his claim to 
the high-sounding title, " Totius Albionis Imperator Augustus." 
Edgar was the last of the line of great kings which had begun 
with Alfred. It had seemed possible that under them England 
would have worked her way to national unity, and that thus 
the house of Cerdic would achieve the success denied to the 
royal houses of Kent, Northumbria, and Mercia. But this was 
not to be, and England had still to go through a long period of 



The Reunion of England under Wessex. 33 

stern discipline under foreign kings, Danish, Norman, and 
Angevin, before her place in the family of nations was secured. 
6. Anglo-Saxon Institutions. — From notices scattered 
over Anglo-Saxon charters, histories, and laws, dating from the 
seventh to the eleventh century, historians have reconstructed 
the system of government under which our forefathers lived. 

(a) The Township. — At the bottom of the scale we find 
the villj or township, occupied either by a number of freeholders 
and their families, or owned by a lord (eorl or t/ieg/i), and 
cultivated by his serfs. The land of the vill was cultivated on 
what is called the three-field system ; it was divided into three 
great open fields, each subdivided into acre or half-acre strips, 
separated from one another by narrow grass lines, or balks. 
One field was under wheat, another under barley, while the 
third lay fallow. The villagers cultivated the fields on a 
system of joint labour, each villager supplying his oxen to 
the plough-team, and receiving the produce of his scattered 
strips. In the unfree villages the serfs cultivated portions of 
the land for their lord, paid him miscellaneous services (e.g. 
carting, watching at his fold during the lambing season), and 
made payments in money and kind. But the serf also held 
strips in the open field, from which he took the crops. The 
township was governed by a reeve, nominated by the king or 
lord, and possibly had a meeting, or moot, to manage its 
affairs. 

(b) The Hundred was a collection of townships, and 
varied greatly in size. (In Anglian districts this division is 
called a Wapentake, and in the north a Ward.) It was 
governed by an officer, hundred-7'etve, or hundreds-ealdor, 
and had its meeting, which was attended by the lords or 
their stewards, and possibly by representatives of the town- 
ships. The business of the court was to decide disputes and 
to try criminals. The form of trial was by compurgation or 
ordeal. In the former, the accused was required to support 
his denial of the charge by the oaths of his friends or com- 
purgators, the value of whose oaths varied according to their 
rank. If these were not forthcoming, he went to the ordeal. 

D 



34 The Reunion of England under Wessex. 

Under this test he had to carry a bar of red-hot iron for three- 
paces, or walk over red-hot plough-shares, or plunge his arm to 
the elbow in boiling water. If his wounds were not healed 
within three days, he was proved guilty, and had to make 
reparation, or bbt. This was generally a fine, part of which 
was paid to the injured person or his relations (the wergild), 
and varied according to the status of the injured man, and 
part to the king (the wife). 

(c) The Shire. — Although a shire-system can be traced 
back to the seventh century, the existing shires had no uni- 
form origin. Some, like Kent and Sussex, represent ancient 
heptarchic kingdoms, while others, such as Hampshire and 
Wiltshire, are the old tribal divisions of Wessex. In the 
Midlands the shires were purely artificial, and due to the 
reorganisation of the country in the tenth century, as it was 
reconquered from the Danes. The old landmarks having 
disappeared, a central town, e.g. Bedford, Leicester, was 
taken, and a district called after it was mapped out. Lastly, 
some of the northern counties are as late as, or later than, the 
Norman Conquest. 

The government of the shire was entrusted to the ealdorman 
and sheriff. The former, in some cases a descendant of the 
ancient tribal king, in others appointed by the king and witan, 
led the Fyrd, or military force of the shire, and sat in the shire 
moot. The sheriff was the king's representative in the shire, 
and convened the shire moot. The same persons attended the 
meeting as in the case of the hundred-court, and the shire-court 
tried all cases beyond the jurisdiction of the former. 

(d) The Witan and King. — The Witan was the council 
of the king, and was therefore attended by the officials of 
Church and State, and by the royal thegns. It elected the 
king, its choice being generally restricted to the best-qualified 
member of the royal family. Instances of deposition occur in 
the heptarchic period. It had a voice in the appointment of 
bishops and ealdormen; its sanction was invariably referred 
to in the issue of codes of law, as is seen in the laws of 
Alfred and Canute. It acted as a court of justice for the trial 



The Reunion of England under Wessex. 35 

of the disputes of the king's thegns, as in the struggle between 
the houses of Leofric and Godwin under Edward the Confessor. 
It controlled the summons of the Fyrd, it voted the Danegeld, 
and had a voice in the making of such treaties as the Peace of 
Wedmore (878). 

The king, who stood at the head of the State, was not an 
irresponsible ruler. He was father of his people, guardian of 
its laws, elected by the Witan, and responsible to it. He was 
supreme judge in the last resort, and leader of the army. The 
needs of the State were provided for mainly by personal service, 
the Trinoda Necessitas, incumbent on all freeholders. This 
comprised the maintenance of roads, bridges, and fortifications, 
and service in the Fyrd. All crimes were infractions of the 
" King's Peace," and he had a share in the fines, but juris- 
diction over the more serious offences, the Kings Pleas, 
belonged to him alone. His revenue was drawn from his 
own private estates and from fines in the law courts, tolls and 
market dues, mines and salt works, and, in great emergencies, 
the Danegeld. His thegns furnished him with a powerful 
bodyguard, and he could endow them with lands and with rights 
of jurisdiction. Such a grant was called Boclaud. In addition 
to the estate actually given were grants of jurisdiction over the 
lands of other freeholders with its profits, and exemption from 
financial duties to the State. Bocland, the estate held by 
bocright, was contrasted with Foldand, the land held by ancient 
customary law, or Folc-right, and the latter was subject to 
restrictions on alienation. 

7. The Anglo-Saxon Church. — The Anglo-Saxons owed 
their conversion primarily to the apostolic zeal of St. Gregory 
the Great, and although disputes on points of discipline arose 
in the seventh century between the Latin and Celtic mission- 
aries, these, as far as the Anglo-Saxon Church was concerned, 
were laid to rest by the Synod of Whitby (664). The British 
Christians on the borders of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms still 
clung to their erroneous practices, but the extension of English 
rule over the British districts gradually brought with it the 
acceptance of the orthodox discipline. The Anglo-Saxon 



36 The Reunion of England under Wessex. 

Church, as a whole, maintained throughout its history the filial 
relations of loyal obedience to the Holy See, and was thus in 
intimate agreement with the rest of Catholic Christendom in 
doctrine and practice. The papacy continued to watch over the 
interests of religious life in England. Thus, in 680, the Synod 
of Hatfield, at the desire of Pope Agatho, affirmed the adhe- 
sion of the Anglo-Saxon Church to the teaching of the Lateran 
Council of 649. In 747 the Council of Clovesho, at the urgent 
command of Pope Zacharias, made a strong effort to reform 
the abuses which afflicted the Church under the rule of Ethel- 
bald, King of Mercia ; and in 803 another synod at Clovesho 
declared that the faith of the Anglo-Saxons was " the same as 
was taught by the Holy Roman Apostolic See, when Gregory 
the Great sent missionaries to our fathers." Pilgrimages to 
Rome, in spite of the dangers and difficulties of the journey, 
were undertaken by English kings and by their subjects, lay 
and clerical. The canons passed by English synods, the lives 
of English saints, the writings of Bede and Alcuin, the inci- 
dental notices in legal and other documents, which afford to 
us glimpses of the religious life of the people, all bear testimony 
to the harmony in belief and action which united our English 
forefathers to the Catholic Church. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Reconquest of the Danelagh .... 910-925. 

Battle of Brunanburh 937. 

Edgar, King of all England 973. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE DANISH CONQUEST. 

I. Edward the Martyr (975-979). — Edgar left two sons, 
Edward, aged thirteen, and Ethelred, a child of seven, the son 
by his second wife, Elfrida. The short reign of Edward was 
rendered turbulent by the factious conduct of the great ealdor- 
men, who in the preceding reign had been curbed by the strong 
rule of Edgar and Dunstan. The archbishop was practically 
driven from power by the intrigues of his enemies, and the 
throne thus lost its chief defender. In 979, Edward was 
murdered at Corfe Castle by the treachery of his stepmother. 

2. Ethelred II., the Unready (979-1016). — Under 
this prince the elements of disorder at once asserted themselves. 
Ethelred, pleasure-loving, feeble, obstinate and cruel, reigned 
for thirty-eight years, a period of national misery and degrada- 
tion. Dunstan retired to Canterbury, where he died in 988. 
The Danish pirates, so long kept at bay by the fleets of Edgar, 
at once renewed their aggressions. The Northmen were now 
more formidable, because they had ceased to be mere bands of 
pirates, and had organised themselves into two great kingdoms, 
Norway under Olaf, Denmark under Swegn. In 980, they 
made descents on Southampton, Thanet, and Cornwall. For 
twenty years the miseries and sufferings of the ninth century 
were renewed. Ethelred, without any definite plan of action, 
left each shire to defend itself as best it could, contenting 
himself with spasmodic campaigns. Dunstan's successor, 
Archbishop Sigeric, in 991, suggested to the king the plan 
of buying off the Danes by a heavy bribe, a tax which, under 
the name of Danegeld, was to become permanent. A peace 

37 



3§ 



The Danish Invasion. 



was, however, arranged with Olaf, king of the Norwegians; 
and Ethelred, by marrying Emma, sister of Duke Richard of 
Normandy, secured himself against attacks from the Continent. 
But in 1 002 Ethelred planned and carried out the infamous 
" Massacre of St. Brice's Day." Among the slaughtered Danes 
were the sister of Swegn, king of Denmark, and her husband 
and child, and Swegn therefore became the implacable enemy 
of Ethelred. 

Disaster now followed on disaster. Swegn's forces ranged 
up and down the country, spreading ruin and desolation. 
Ethelred was ruled by Edric Streona — or the Grasper — 
Ealdorman of Mercia, a man of humble birth, whom the 
nobles detested, accusing him with justice of treachery and 
avarice. Every year fresh hordes of Danes descended on the 
unhappy country. Thurkill, Swegn's lieutenant, raided the 
south and east. In 1011 he besieged Canterbury, and 
the aged Archbishop Alphege was barbarously murdered for 
refusing to pay a ransom, which would have impoverished 
the Church. In 1013 England could resist no. longer. Swegn 
himself came over and received the submission of Northumbria 
and of the west. Ethelred fled to Normandy, and the Witan, 
acting on the advice of Edric Streona, acknowledged Swegn as 
king. On the death of Swegn in 1014, his son Canute was set 
aside, and Ethelred returned at the invitation of his subjects. 
But he was now opposed by his former favourite, Edric, who 
supported Canute, and his reign ended amidst the miseries of 
war. Ethelred died in 1016. 

3, Edmund Ironside (1016-1017). — Edmund was at 
once proclaimed king by the Londoners, and strove to rally 
the national forces, while Canute posted himself at South- 
ampton to overawe Wessex. A fierce struggle followed, 
Edric Streona acting the part of traitor as his interests dictated. 
In four pitched battles Edmund defeated the Danes, but in 
the fifth, fought at Assandune in Essex, Edric deserted Edmund 
for Canute, and the Danes remained masters of the field. As, 
however, neither side could destroy the other, Edmund and 
Canute agreed to divide the kingdom, Edmund taking Wessex, 



The Danish Invasion. 39 

Kent, and East Anglia, while Canute ruled Northumbria and 
Mercia as under-king. A month later Edmund was murdered, 
and all England acknowledged Canute. 

4. Canute (1017-1035). — England now formed part of 
the great Scandinavian empire, of which Denmark was the 
centre, and to which Norway was added in 1028. Canute 
secured his position in England by sending the two infant 
sons of Edmund to Olaf, King of Sweden, who entrusted them 
to Stephen, King of Hungary, at whose court they were 
educated. King Edmund's half-brothers, Alfred and Edward, 
with their mother, Emma, the widow of Ethelred the Unready, 
had taken refuge with their uncle Richard, Duke of Normandy, 
but Canute disarmed the hostility of Richard by marrying 
Emma. 1 

Canute now set about the restoration of order in his new 
kingdom. Edric Streona, who had been allowed at first to 
retain Mercia, was put to death. The kingdom was divided 
into four great earldoms — Northumberland, Mercia, East 
Anglia, and Wessex, and Canute soon showed his trust in 
the loyalty of his subjects by sending home his Danish forces, 
and entrusting two of the great earldoms to Englishmen. 
Leofric became Earl of Mercia, and Godwin Earl of Wessex. 
Canute also employed his English thegns on foreign expedi- 
tions, for Godwin accompanied Canute to Denmark, and is 
said to have rendered the king signal services. Even in the 
special bodyguard of House-carls, who attended the king, 
English and Northmen were admitted on equal terms. 

In 1027, Canute, following the example of his Anglo-Saxon 
predecessors, made a pilgrimage to Rome. A letter is extant 



1 Elgiva = Ethelred the Unready = 

Edmund (Ironside). 
1 


Emma of Normandy. 


1 1 1 
Edmund. Edward. Alfred. 


et. 


1 

Edward 

the Confessor. 


1 . 1 
Edgar Atheling- Margar 





40 The Danish Invasion. 

written by Canute to his English subjects on his way back to 
Denmark, describing his reception by the Pope and emperor, 
and the concessions he had obtained on behalf of Englishmen 
coming as pilgrims to Rome. The Pope agreed to diminish 
the sums demanded from English archbishops " when, accord- 
ing to custom, they visited the Apostolic See to obtain the 
pallium." Canute ended by solemnly declaring to his subjects 
that he had dedicated his life to the service of God, and that 
if by violence or neglect he had done injustice hitherto, he 
would make compensation, and would see that justice in 
future should be done to all. 

Under the rule of Canute prosperity began to revive. 
Trade flourished, and town life as a consequence developed. 
Canute's hold on Norway and Sweden prevented all attack 
from that quarter, and his successful assertion of his supremacy 
over Malcolm II., King of the Scots, and the Welsh, preserved 
peace within his island kingdom. 

5. Harold 1.(1035-1040); Hardicanute (1040-1042). 
The rule of Canute's descendants in England was short. 
Harold and Hardicanute disputed the succession. The former, 
Canute's son by an Englishwoman, was supported by northern 
England, the latter, who was the offspring of Canute's marriage 
with Queen Emma, relied on Godwin and the south. A com- 
promise was arranged by which the two half-brothers divided 
England. Hardicanute took the district south of the Thames, 
and ruled also over Denmark. The sons of Ethelred the 
Unready and Emma, Edward and Alfred, made an attempt to 
recover their father's inheritance, but it was foiled by Godwin 
and their mother, who preferred the interests of her son 
Hardicanute. Alfred was captured and put to death, and 
rumour accused Godwin of having a hand in the murder of 
the young prince. Soon after, as Hardicanute neglected his 
English dominion and remained in Denmark, his English 
subjects acknowledged Harold, but the death of the latter 
secured the whole kingdom to Hardicanute. The new reign 
only lasted two years, but these were marked by oppressive 
government and heavy taxation. The death of Hardicanute 



The Danish Invasion. 41 

in 1042, in the midst of a drunken orgy at the marriage feast 
of one of his thegns, released England from her oppressor. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Renewal of Danish invasions 980. 

Danegeld levied 991. 

Massacre of St. Brice's Day 1002. 

Battle of Assandune 1016. 

Canute's pilgrimage to Rome . , . . . 1027,, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE ENGLISH RESTORATION AND THE NORMAN 
INVASION. 

i. Edward the Confessor (1042-1066). — England now 
turned once again to the House of Cerdic, and Edward, son 
of Ethelred II. and Emma, was elected by the Witan. The 
new king was forty years old, and had spent the greater part 
of his life in Normandy, where he became imbued with a 
higher civilisation than that existing in England. He was 
deeply religious, and anxious for the welfare of his subjects. 
But he shrank from those measures of harshness which the 
rudeness of the times demanded, and his rule, though setting 
an example of mildness and justice on which after ages looked 
back with affection, did not always win for him the peace 
and loyal obedience for which he strove. 

Edward owed his throne mainly to the support of Earl 
Godwin, whom he rewarded with his entire confidence. He 
married Godwin's daughter Edith, and the sons of Godwin, 
Harold, and Sweyn obtained earldoms in central England. 
The rest of the kingdom was divided between Leofric, Earl of 
Mercia, and Siward, Earl of Northumbria. With such powerful 
subjects the king's position was not likely to be a strong one, 
and Edward soon alienated Godwin by the favour he showed 
to Normans. Robert of Jumieges became Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and other Normans were given offices in Church 
and State. Godwin therefore came forward as champion of 
English interests against foreign influence. In 1051, Eustace 
of Boulogne, while passing through Dover, was insulted by the 
townsmen, and some of his retainers were killed. Godwin, as 

42 



English Restoration and Norman Invasion. 43 

Earl of Wessex, was responsible for the peace of Kent, but 
refused to punish the offenders. Edward therefore called on 
Leofric and Siward, who were naturally jealous of the power 
of Godwin's family, to help him. Godwin, unable or unwilling 
to resist the king, fled abroad with Harold and Sweyn. The 
Witan outlawed them, and Queen Edith was banished to a 
nunnery. While the English party was thus in exile, William 
of Normandy visited England, .and received from Edward a 
promise that he should be recognised as heir to the throne. 

The Norman reaction was, however, short-lived. In 1052 
Godwin and his sons returned to England at the head of an 
army, and the Norman bishops and nobles had in their turn 
to go into exile. The Witan reversed the sentence against 
Godwin, and Robert of Jumieges was expelled from his arch- 
bishopric in favour of Stigand, Bishop of London. For the 
rest of his reign Edward was ruled by the house of Godwin. 
The great earl died in 1053, and Harold became Earl of 
Wessex. Siward of Northumbria died two years later, and his 
earldom was given to Tostig, third son of Earl Godwin, while 
earldoms were granted to the two youngest sons of Godwin, 
Gyrth and Leofwin. 

The whole of England, except Mercia, was thus portioned 
out amongst the members of one family, but the change was 
justified on the whole by its success. In 1059 Griffith, King 
of Wales, raided the valley of the Severn. Harold drove 
him back into Wales, and pursued him into the mountainous 
district of the north. The Welsh purchased peace by a com- 
plete submission and by sending the head of Griffith as a 
peace-offering to their conqueror (1063). The claims of 
relationship, however, did not prevent Harold from doing 
justice even where his family interests were involved. Tostig's 
oppressive rule of Northumbria led to a revolt in favour of 
Morcar, grandson of Leofric, and brother of Edwin, the Earl of 
Mercia. Harold advised Edward to banish Tostig and confirm 
the action of the Northumbrians. Edward himself did not 
long survive these events. The wish of his later years had 
been to make a pilgrimage to Rome, but this had been 



44 English Restoration and Norman Invasion. 

opposed by the Witan in view of the risks involved in the 
king's absence. Pope Leo IX. had therefore allowed Edward 
to undertake instead some other work of piety, and one of the 
king's last acts was to provide for the building of a new church 
and monastery at Westminster. Edward's death was bitterly 
mourned by his subjects ; without the attributes of a great king, 
he left on his age the impression of a life free from all self- 
seeking, and wholly devoted to the welfare of his kingdom and 
to the service of the Church. " The laws and customs of good 
King Edward " long remained as the standard of good govern- 
ment to which Englishmen appealed, and to which even their 
foreign oppressors were compelled to pay homage. 

2. Harold II. (1066). — Edward died without direct heirs, 
and the question of the succession to the throne had to be settled 
by the Witan. Edward himself, as we have seen, had made 
some promise to William of Normandy, but shortly after 
William's visit he had sent for Edward, son of Edmund 
Ironside, who had been brought up in Hungary. Edward of 
Hungary had died soon after arriving, and his son Edgar the 
Atheling was only ten years old. Moreover, Edward, on his 
death-bed, had recommended Harold to the Witan as his 
successor. The position was further complicated by the fact 
that Earl Harold himself some time before, while cruising in 
the Channel, had been wrecked on the coast of Normandy, 
and while at the court of William had been drawn into taking 
an oath of allegiance to the duke. The English Witan did 
not hesitate to set aside the other claimants in favour of 
Harold. 

Both Harold and William prepared for the inevitable 
struggle. Harold tried to conciliate the House of Leofric by. 
marrying Edith, the sister of Edwin and Morcar, and proceeded) 
to put his kingdom into a state of defence. William mean- 
while appealed to Western Europe for support against Harold, 
whom he denounced as a usurper and perjurer. The Normanj 
barons pledged themselves to support William's claim, and; 
looked forward to a share in the spoils of conquest. Adventurers 
from France, Germany, and other parts of Europe nocked to 



English Restoration and Norman Invasion. 45 

Normandy to take part in the enterprise. But, first and fore- 
most, William's appeal lay to the central tribunal of Christendom. 
The Anglo-Saxon Church presented in its disorganisation a 
reflection of the Anglo-Saxon State. Stigand, the nominal 
Archbishop of Canterbury, occupied the see from which Robert 
of Jumieges had been uncanonically expelled, and the illegality 
of his position was increased by the fact that he had received 
the pallium from the Anti-Pope Benedict X. Alexander II. 
therefore had no hesitation in sanctioning William's expedition, 
and sent him a consecrated banner. 

William's attack on England found help in an unexpected 
quarter. The fatal tendency to disunion, so marked through- 
out Anglo-Saxon history, now showed itself in the house of 
Godwin. Harold, already threatened by the intrigues of 
Edwin and Morcar, was called on to resist the claims of his 
own brother Tostig to the earldom of Northumbria. Backed 
by Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, Tostig landed in 
Yorkshire, and with his ally marched on York. Edwin and 
Morcar, compelled to defend their earldoms, were defeated, 
and York surrendered. Harold meanwhile had marched north, 
and he now fell upon the invaders at Stamford Bridge. The 
invaders sustained a crushing defeat, and Tostig and Harold 
Hardrada were amongst the slain. 

Tostig's attack had forced Harold to divide his forces, and 
this rendered feasible William's expedition. Two days after 
the battle of Stamford Bridge the Normans landed at Pevensey, 
and at once marched on Hastings. Harold hurried south, 
summoning his brothers with all the forces of the southern 
shires to London. Edwin and Morcar, intent on their own 
interests, hung back and waited to see the course of events. 
William had meanwhile utilised the ten days of delay to 
entrench himself at Hastings. On October 14, 1066, the fate 
of England was decided on the hill of Senlac. William, eager 
for a decisive engagement before the forces from Mercia and 
Northumbria could arrive, left his camp at Hastings and 
advanced to the attack. The English adhered to the old 
Teutonic custom of fighting on foot, and made no use of 






46 English Restoration and Norman Invasion. 

cavali)-. The centre consisted of the house-carls, clad in mail 
armour and armed with javelins, Danish axes, and broadswords. 
The wings were formed by the lightly armed contingents of 
the fyrd. The Normans, on the other hand, followed the 
more scientific methods of the Continent, and relied to a great 
extent on their cavalry and archers. William's aim was to 
disorganise the enemy by showers of arrows, and then ride in 
upon them before they had time to recover. Harold's plan 
was the wise one of remaining on the defensive, and he therefore 
ordered his men on no account to desert the upper slopes of 
the hill of Senlac, on which they were posted. In this position 
they successfully resisted for a time the attacks of the Norman 
cavalry. But the half-trained levies of the English flanks, galled 
by the Norman bowmen, got out of control, and, misled by a 
feigned retreat ordered by William, poured down the hill. 
William launched his cavalry on their broken lines, routed 
them completely, and dashed his men against the flanks of the 
English centre. Gyrth and Leofwin were already dead, and 
the fall of Harold made disaster inevitable. The English 
house-carls, disdaining to survive their master, fell fighting 
round the royal standard. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Earl Godwin banished 1051. 

Harold's conquest of Wales 1063. 

Tostig expelled from Northumbria .... 1065. 
Battle of Stamford Bridge . September 25, 1066. 
Battle of Hastings October 14, 1066. 



NORMAN AND ANGEVIN KINGS. 

William I., 
1066-1087. 



I III 

Robert of Normandy, William II., Henry I., Adela 

d. 1,135- 1 087-1 100. 1 100-1135. 



William Clito, 
d. 1128. 



Henry, 
d. 1 183. 



William, 
d. 1 1 20. 



Richard I., 
1189-1199. 



Stephen, 
II35-IIS4. 



I 
Matilda. 



Henry II., 
1154-1189. 



Geoffrey, 
d. 1 186. 



John, 
: 99-1216. 



ENGLAND 

from 1066 to 1485. 

English Miles 
o 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 




CHAPTER IX. 

WILLIAM I. (1066-1087). 

i. Coronation of William I. — The stubborn resistance 
of the English, and the fact that the forces of Mercia and 
Northumbria were still available for the defence of England, 
led William to expect further fighting. His own army had 
suffered severely, and he did not move forward till he had 
received reinforcements from Normandy. Meanwhile the Witan 
met in London and elected Edgar Atheling as king. No 
leader, however, came forward to organise a national resist- 
ance, for Edwin and Morcar, who acquiesced in Edgar's 
election, at once withdrew to their earldoms. William, there- 
fore, marched into Kent, laying waste the country, and received 
the submission of the Kentish strongholds, Dover and Canter- 
bury. He then pushed northwards to London, but finding the 
bridge strongly guarded, he marched up the Thames as far as 
Wallingford, where he crossed and struck north to Berkhamp- 
stead. London, cut off from help from the north, at once 
surrendered. A deputation of bishops and thegns offered the 
throne to William, and he was crowned on Christmas Day, 
1066, by the Archbishop of York. 

2. Treatment of the Conquered Shires. — The corona- 
tion was followed by the submission of Edwin and Morcar, 
who did homage to the new king, and were confirmed in the 
possession of their earldoms. This gave William some hold 
over central England, and he then proceeded to deal with the 
southern and eastern shires, over which his authority was 
already effective. Refusing to recognise his own position as 
a conqueror, but claiming instead to be the lawful king, 

49 E 



5° 



William I. 



he treated as rebels all those who had fought at Hastings. 
Although their lands were declared forfeited, for reasons of 
policy this was not pushed to extremes. Those who submitted 
were allowed, in many cases, to redeem their lands, and 
received them back as estates held directly of the king. At 
the same time lands were granted to William's followers to be 
held as fiefs by the feudal tenure of knight-service. This 
process of confiscation, followed by a re-grant on new con- 
ditions, was steadily pursued as the rebellions of the next five 
years threw more land into the king's hands. The result was 
the gradual disappearance of the complicated Anglo-Saxon 
tenures, some quasi-feudal, some freehold, and the reduction 
of all tenures to a uniform type. By the end of the reign all 
the land of England was held directly or indirectly of the 
king, and feudalism, as far as land tenure was concerned, was 
established. 

3. Rebellion in the South and West of England 
( 1 067-1 068). — In 1067 William returned to Normandy, 
taking with him Edgar Atheling and other Anglo-Saxon chiefs, 
and leaving his half-brother Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and his 
trusted follower Fitz-Osbern as regents. The insolent oppres- 
sion of the English by their Norman lords provoked risings ; 
Copsi, an Englishman whom William had set over North- 
umbria, was killed, and there was fighting in Kent and 
Herefordshire. But the English were without leaders or 
definite aims, and were easily put down. William hurried 
back, and after punishing the rebels by confiscating their lands, 
he settled down to the conquest of the rest of England. In 
1068 William had to deal with risings in the west and north. 
In the west, Gytha, with her grandchildren, the sons of Harold, 
held out at Exeter. William, summoning the fyrd from the 
shires, which he could trust, marched west, and forced Exeter 
to surrender. Gytha and her grandchildren fled over tl>e seas. 
The submission of the south-western shires completed the 
conquest of southern England. 

4- Conquest of the North (1069).— Meanwhile the 
north, over which William's authority was purely nominal, was 



William I. 51 

in open rebellion, and Edwin and Morcar in central England 
took up arms. William marched into the Midlands, took 
town after town, and stamped out resistance in the shires of 
Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Lincoln. The north made a 
formal submission, but in 1069 again rose in arms. Robert of 
Comines, the newly appointed earl, was killed at Durham. 
Malcolm III. of Scotland, who shortly after married Margaret, 
sister of Edgar Atheling, promised help. Swegn of Denmark 
sent a force to aid the rebels. The Danish fleet sailed up the 
Humber, and the Danes, joining the English under Waltheof, 
marched on York, where there was a Norman garrison. York 
was captured and burnt. William moved rapidly north; the 
Anglo-Danish alliance broke up, the Danes retreated to their 
ships, while William recaptured York and laid waste all the 
lands between the Humber and the Tees. Waltheof submitted, 
and the Danes were bribed by William to return to Denmark. 
In mid-winter he pushed through the mountainous district of 
Derbyshire into Cheshire, and with the submission of Chester 
the conquest of the north was complete. The harrying of the 
north, William's one great act of vengeance, left a permanent 
mark on the development of England, for it secured the pre 
dominance of southern England by dealing a blow to the 
northern shires, from which they did not wholly recover for 
seven hundred years. 

The struggle now died down into an isolated resistance on 
the part of Hereward the Wake in the Isle of Ely. Edwin 
and Morcar, who had been pardoned, again rebelled, but Edwin 
was killed, and William captured Ely in 107 1. Hereward was 
pardoned, and Morcar was imprisoned for the rest of his life. 
Edgar Atheling took refuge with Malcolm of Scotland, but an 
expedition into Scotland in 1072, which reached the banks 
of the Tay, forced Malcolm to do homage to William, and 
procured withdrawal of Edgar to Flanders. William was now 
effectually king of all England. English disunion and Norman 
discipline had completed the work begun at Hastings. Hence- 
forward William's difficulties came from the turbulence of his 
own followers or descendants. 



52 William I. 

5. The Rebellion of the Norman Barons and Revolt 
of Robert (1 074-1 082).— In 1074 Ralph Guader, Earl of 
Norfolk, and Roger of Breteuil, Earl of Hereford, conspired 
with Waltheof. The conspiracy was a failure, for Waltheof 
decided to reveal the secret to the Government. Ralph fled to 
1 >e 11 mark, and Roger was captured. The plot had received 
no support from the English, who, on the contrary, were 
against the rebels. William's vengeance, strangely enough, 
fell on Waltheof, who was beheaded ; Roger was imprisoned 
for life. 

In 1078 the king's eldest son, Robert, asked for the Duchy 
of Normandy, and meeting with an angry refusal, fled to Philip 
of France. Civil war followed in Normandy, and Robert, 
with French support, defeated his father at Gerberoi, in 1079. 
Robert, not recognising his opponent in the heat of battle, 
unhorsed and wounded his father. A reconciliation followed, 
but the quarrel was renewed, and ended in the banishment 
of Robert for the rest of the reign. Shortly after William, 
angered by the conduct and ambition of Bishop Odo, Earl of 
Kent, arrested and imprisoned him for life. 

6. Danegeld and Domesday Survey.— In 1084 
England was threatened by an invasion on the part of Canute 
of Denmark, and' although Canute died before the attack could 
be carried out, the danger had important results. William 
revived the Danegeld in a more stringent form, and in 1085 
ordered a survey of the country to be made in order to 
ascertain its resources for defence and taxation. The survey 
was completed in 1086. Commissioners were sent into the 
shires, and summoned before them in the shire-courts the 
reeve, parish priest, and six villans from each township. These 
were required to furnish particulars on the following points : 
the name of the manor, its owner; the number of hides and 
plough-teams ; the number of tenants, whether free or unfree j 
the amount of wood, pasture, and waste land; and the value of 
the manor at different dates, viz., under Edward the Confessor, 
at the date when it was granted to the present holder, and at the 
date of the Survey itself. The results of the inquiry were sent 



William I. 53 

to Winchester, and from these Domesday Book was compiled. 
A detailed account of the condition of the greater part of 
the country was thus drawn up. William followed this by a 
summons of every free landholder to Salisbury (1086), and 
received from them an oath of personal allegiance to himself, 
thus striking a heavy blow at the disruptive tendencies of the 
feudal system. 

7. The Last Years of William I.— The Duke of 
Normandy was too powerful a vassal not to be viewed with 
enmity by his feudal superior, Philip of France, and throughout 
his reign William was constantly on the watch to check the 
intrigues of the French king to make encroachments at his 
expense. In 1063 William had annexed the province of 
Maine, and the revolt of the district ten years later was put 
down with the help of an English army. Philip's hostility had 
shown itself in the support given to Robert in 1079, and the 
quarrel between suzerain and vassal was kept alive by a dispute 
as to the frontier line of Normandy. In 1087 William led 
a ravaging expedition into the French Vexin to avenge an 
insulting jest levelled at him by Philip. Mantes was taken and 
burnt, and William, while vindictively watching the destruction, 
was severely injured by his horse stumbling beneath him. He 
was carried back to Rouen, where he died shortly after. 

8. William's Policy towards the Church. — For the 
Church in England William's reign proved as important as it 
was for the State. On the Continent the great revival, known 
as the Cluniac Reformation, was now at its height. The great 
Hildebrand, after standing by three Popes in succession as their 
chief adviser, himself ascended the papal throne in 1073, as 
Gregory VII. It was through the advice of Hildebrand that 
Alexander II. had sanctioned William's attack on England, for 
Hildebrand saw that the Church in England had fallen behind- 
hand, and required far-reaching reforms. At William's request 
three legates were sent to England to reorganise the Church. 
The schismatic Stigand was deposed, and replaced by the 
Italian Lanfranc, one of the greatest scholars in Europe. All 
the Anglo-Saxon bishops except one were removed, and the 



r^ William I. 

same policy was gradually followed with regard to the heads 
of monasteries. Another great reform was carried out by a 
charter in which William ordered the bishop no longer to sit 
in the shire-court to judge ecclesiastical suits, but to try such 
cases by canon law in a separate ecclesiastical court. Under 
the guidance of Lanfranc, supported by William, religion in 
England revived. The country was covered with magnificent 
churches and cathedrals; laxity amongst the clergy was repressed, 
and the law of clerical celibacy was rigidly enforced. At the 
same time William tried to keep a strong hold on the Church. 
The demand of Gregory VII. for an oath of feudal fealty he 
flatly refused, although at the same time he promised to pay to 
the Papacy that obedience which his English predecessors had 
paid. Further, he is said by his biographer Eadmer to have 
introduced certain new regulations into England. Thus he 
insisted that in the case of a disputed succession to the Papacy 
he should decide which Pope England should acknowledge, 
and he ordered that all papal letters should be first submitted 
to him. Further, no synod of the English clergy was to make 
laws without his leave, and his ministers and tenants were not 
to be excommunicated without his sanction. 

9. William's Policy towards Feudalism. — The Feudal 
System was an organisation of government based on land 
tenure, in which ownership of land was held to carry with it 
rights of jurisdiction over those who dwelt on it. The feudal 
lord in France owed duties to his superior, the king, but his 
tenants were bound in the first place to obey, not the king, but 
their lord. Hence feudalism always implied a weak central 
power, and a tendency to national disruption. As far as England 
was concerned, W 7 illiam from the first seems to have striven to 
thwart the worst tendencies of feudalism. He replaced the Anglo- 
Saxon tenures by the feudal tenures of the Continent, because 
that was inevitable, but he tried to resist the governmental 
aspect of feudalism whenever it was possible to do so. Thus 
he kept up the English institutions -the fyrd, the hundred and 
shire-courts, as a counterpoise to the private courts and armed 
forces of the barons. He rewarded his Norman followers with 



William I. 55 

grants of land, but he scattered their estates so as to avoid 
creating provincial jurisdictions. His creations of earldoms 

I were few, especially after the rebellion in 1074, and he governed 
the counties by sheriffs, royal officers whom he could trust. 
Lastly, by the oath at Salisbury, 1086, he taught his people that 
his claim to their loyalty and obedience came before that of 
any feudal lord, and that refusal to obey him was treason. 
William inflicted many cruel wrongs on his English subjects. 
But he rendered to them one service of supreme importance 
by bequeathing to his successors a policy, the primary aim of 
which was to create a strong central power, and thus in the 
long run, by doing away with Anglo-Saxon disunion and feudal 
anarchy, was to give to England the priceless boon of national 
unity. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Completion of the Conquest . . - . 1067-1071. 

First Feudal Conspiracy 1074. 

Rebellion of Robert 1078. 

Danegeld 1084. 

Domesday Survey completed 1086. 

Oath at Salisbury 1086. 



CHAPTER X. 

WILLIAM II. (1087-1 100); HENRY I. (1100--1135) ; 
STEPHEN (1135-1154). 

i. The Struggle with Robert (1087-1006). — William I. on 
his deathbed had nominated William, his second son, nicknamed 
Rums, to succeed him in England, while his eldest son Robert 
was to be Duke of Normandy. William Rufus therefore hurried 
to England, and was elected king by an assembly of barons and 
bishops. He was crowned by Lanfranc, his former tutor, and 
as long as the archbishop lived his influence held in check the 
vicious and cruel tendencies of his royal pupil. William's first 
care was to strengthen himself against the English adherents of 
Robert. Odo of Bayeux headed the opposition, and rebellions 
broke out in different parts of England. The danger was 
averted by the loyalty of the native English and by the feeble- 
ness of Duke Robert. William appealed to his people, and 
English support enabled him to crush the insurgents. Robert, 
who had promised help to the rebels, did not move. In 1091 
William led an expedition into Normandy, where he was joined 
by those of the Norman vassals who hoped for advantages from 
the quarrels of the two brothers. But through the mediation of 
Philip of France peace was arranged, William retaining certain 
strongholds in Normandy, while Robert renounced his claims 
on England. An amnesty for Robert's English adherents was 
agreed on, and it was arranged that on the death of either 
prince the survivor should succeed to his possessions. Duke 
Robert, however, backed by the French king, continued to 
intrigue against William, who retorted by another attack on 
Normandy ; but the threatening attitude of Philip and dangers 

56 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 57 

at home forced him to return to England. In 1096 William 
gained peaceful possession of the Duchy. Duke Robert, fired 
with zeal for the recovery of the Holy Land, had vowed to 
join the first Crusade. William eagerly took advantage of his 
brother's enthusiasm, and in return for a loan of 10,000 marks 
was placed in possession of Normandy. 

2. Wars with the Scotch and Welsh. — In the midst 
of his quarrel with Robert, William Rufus had been recalled to 
England by danger from Scotland and Wales. Malcolm Can- 
more, the supporter of his brother-in-law Edgar Atheling against 
William I., had eventually done homage to the Conqueror, but 
in 1 09 1 he had plundered the northern shires. William II. 
retorted by an invasion of Scotland, by which he forced Malcolm 
to renew his oath of allegiance and to surrender Cumberland, 
which had been included in the grant of Strathclyde made by 
Edmund I., in 945, to the Scottish king. To secure Cumber- 
land Carlisle was fortified. In 1093 Malcolm again invaded 
England, and carried a ravaging expedition as far as Alnwick, 
where he was surprised by Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northum- 
berland, and killed. A disputed succession to the Scotch 
throne followed, but in 1097 Edgar Atheling, with the support 
of William, led an army into Scotland, and secured the accession 
of his nephew Edgar, the second son of Malcolm and Margaret. 

With regard to Wales, William Rufus was less successful. 
William I. had caused castles to be built, and, abandoning his 
ordinary anti-feudal policy, had created the three great earldoms 
of Chester, Shrewsbury, and Hereford with almost sovereign 
rights, so as to provide strong local means of defence against 
the Welsh. In 1094 the Welsh poured into the three earldoms, 
and after devastating the country, captured the castle of Mont- 
gomery. William retaliated by an expedition into Wales. But 
the cumbrous Norman cavalry was of little use in a moun- 
tainous country, and after a short campaign William retired, 
contenting himself with offers of Welsh land to those of his 
barons who chose to undertake the conquest. 

3. William's Misgovernment. — The death of Lanfranc 
in 1089 removed the only restraint on William's vicious and 



58 William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 

tyrannical conduct. The king's chief adviser, or justiciar, was 
Ralph Flambard, a Norman priest, who had served under 
William I., and now won the confidence of William Rufus by 
his unscrupulous character. A system of extortion was set 
going in Church and State. Feudal reliefs— the payment made 
by the heir of a tenant-in-chief before succeeding to the estate 
— were largely increased, so that the heir had practically to 
repurchase the estate. Under the feudal system the king 
could claim the custody of an estate if the heir was a minor, 
and in the case of an heiress could dispose of her in marriage. 
Both these rights, known respectively as wardship and marriage, 
were grossly abused. Even the old forms of liberty were turned 
into engines of oppression. Flambard, we are told, " drave the 
gemots," that is, he summoned the local courts of the shire 
and hundred at frequent intervals in order to exact sums of 
money. 

4. William II. and Anselm. — On the Church the hand 
of William and Flambard fell with equal heaviness. Bishoprics 
were kept vacant in order that the Crown might seize the 
revenues, and when a new bishop was appointed, William 
insisted on a large present of money, which brought the whole 
transaction dangerously near to the sin of simony. It was 
not till 1093 that William, thinking himself at the point of 
death, nominated Anselm to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. 

Anselm, a native of Aosta in Piedmont, had been attracted 
to the monastery of Bee in Normandy, then ruled by Lanfranc. 
He succeeded Lanfranc as Prior of Bee, and after fifteen years 
in this office he was appointed abbot of the monastery. His 
gentle and lovable nature was combined with intellectual gifts 
of the highest order, and with a keenness of mind which en- 
abled him to detect at a glance the weakness in an adversary's 
position. From time to time he travelled on the business of 
his monastery, and thus, in 1078, he came to England on a 
visit to Lanfranc. In 1092, at the request of Hugh, Earl of 
Chester, Anselm visited Chester in order to carry through 
reforms in the constitution of the Church of St. Werburgh. 
From Chester he was summoned to the kind's bedside at 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 59 

Gloucester, and almost by force was compelled to accept the 
nomination to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. William 
promised Anselm to carry out a number of reforms if he 
recovered from his illness, but his promises were not kept. 
The royal court became a centre of debauchery, and the old 
abuses in the government revived. The rupture between 
Anselm and the king was not long delayed. William, being 
in need of money for his Norman expedition, received contri- 
butions from his barons, and amongst them 500 pounds of 
silver from Anselm. This was refused by the king as in- 
sufficient, whereupon the archbishop distributed his gift 
amongst the poor. In 1095 Anselm asked leave of William 
to go to Rome to receive the pallium from Urban II., whose 
succession to the Papacy was disputed by the Anti-Pope, 
Clement III., the nominee of the Emperor Henry IV. William 
angrily refused to allow any one but himself to decide which 
of the rival claimants was to be acknowledged as Pope. A 
great council was held at Rockingham to decide the question, 
but as Anselm refused to renounce his allegiance to Urban, 
William was forced in the end to give way. He therefore 
secretly asked Urban that the pallium might be sent to him, 
intending to confer it on any one he pleased, if he could force 
Anselm to resign. But all intrigues were frustrated by the 
unwavering courage of Anselm. Urban sent a cardinal with 
the pallium, and Anselm, after refusing to receive it at the 
hands of the king, took it from the altar of Canterbury 
Cathedral. In 1097 Anselm, finding his position intolerable, 
set out for Rome to lay his case before the Pope, Urban II. 
William and Anselm did not meet again. In 11 00 an arrow 
from an unknown hand struck the king as he was hunting in 
the New Forest, and released England from the burden of his 
tyranny and evil example. 

5. The Reforms of Henry I. — Henry lost no time in 
securing his own accession. The barons would have preferred 
the rule of Robert of Normandy, but the latter was absent in 
Palestine, and Henry, therefore, was elected king without 
opposition. One of Henry's first acts was to write to Anselm, 



60 William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 

begging him to return, and this popular step was accompanied 
by the issue of a charter promising that the abuses of the last 
reign should cease. The Church was to be free, and the king 
pledged himself not to seize the revenues of vacant bishoprics 
or other clerical appointments. Feudal dues were to be just 
and lawful, both those paid to the king by his tenants-in-chief 
and to the latter by their tenants. Abuses of wardship and 
of giving heiresses in marriage were forbidden, and the " Law of 
Edward the Confessor," as amended by William I., was to be 
restored. To conciliate the barons, Henry imprisoned Flam- 
bard, and he won over the English by his promised marriage 
with Matilda of Scotland, daughter of Malcolm and Margaret, 
and niece of Edgar Atheling. 

6. The Struggle with Robert of Normandy. — By 
these concessions Henry had drawn the majority of his subjects 
to his side, and the strength of his position was at once seen 
when the return of Robert to Normandy led to a rebellion of 
the barons in England. Robert landed at Porchester with an 
army, but finding his younger brother too strong to be dis- 
lodged from the throne, he agreed to a compromise by which 
he surrendered his claim to England for a pension of 3000 
marks annually (1101). 

Henry was prevented by the terms of this treaty from 
directly punishing his brother's adherents in England, but 
he seized every opportunity to humiliate those barons who 
had supported Robert in his expedition. On various charges 
they were summoned before the Curia Regis, and were out- 
lawed or deprived of their possessions. Chief amongst them 
was the turbulent Robert of Belesme, Earl of Shrewsbury, the 
most powerful noble in England, but brutal, rapacious, and 
treacherous. Summoned to answer forty-five charges of treason, 
he retired to his stronghold, the castle of Bridgnorth on the 
Severn. The loyalty of his English subjects enabled Henry 
to take the field with a large army, and the fall of his castles 
of Arundel and Bridgnorth forced Belesme to make an abject 
submission. He was allowed to retire to Normandy, where he 
took service with Duke Robert. The English hailed with joy 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 61 

the defeat of Belesme. " Rejoice, King Henry," they cried, 
"and praise the Lord God now that thou hast conquered 
Robert of Belesme, and driven him out of the bounds of thy 
kingdom" (1102). 

The steady repression of Duke Robert's party in England 
soon led to a renewal of the struggle between the two brothers. 
In 1 104 war broke out, and after some indecisive fighting the 
fate of Robert was decided in the campaign of 1106. Henry 
led an army of barons and English foot-soldiers into Normandy, 
and laid siege to Tenchebrai. Robert marched to relieve the 
town, and was completely routed. Amongst the captives were 
Duke Robert himself and Edgar Atheling. Robert was im- 
prisoned in Cardiff Castle till his death in 1135. Tne victory 
of Tenchebrai, won by an English army on Norman soil, 
seemed to the English a just vengeance for their defeat at 
Hastings forty years before. 

7. The Investiture Quarrel. — Since his recall in 1100 
Anselm had thrown himself vigorously on the side of the king, 
and it was mainly through his exertions that the English had 
supported Henry at every crisis. But from the outset his 
relations with the king were complicated by a dispute as to 
the respective rights of the Church and Crown with regard to 
the ecclesiastical appointments. This question, which had 
thrown the Papacy and Empire into violent antagonism, was 
known as the Investiture Quarrel. 

Investiture in feudal phraseology meant the grant of an 
office or estate, the grant being ratified by the gift of some 
symbol, such as, in the case of a bishop or abbot, the ring and 
crozier. The right of nomination and investiture was in the 
eleventh century claimed by European kings, who insisted that 
bishops, as great feudal magnates, should be appointed by them, 
and, on being invested, should do homage for their estates. 
But the Church was now struggling to extricate herself from the 
network of feudal relations which tended to reduce bishops and 
abbots to the position of lay officials, and to make spiritual 
offices hereditary and even saleable. Hence the decrees of 
Gregory VII. in 1075 against simony, marriage of the clergy, 



62 William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 

and investiture by laymen, and these had been reaffirmed by 
Urban II. in a council at Rome in 1099, at which Anselm, 
then in exile, had assisted. On his return to England Anselm 
refused to do homage to Henry or to recognise bishops invested 
by the king. Long negotiations followed, and in 11 03 Anselm 
retired to Rome to consult Pascal II., and while abroad was 
ordered by Henry not to return unless prepared to give way on 
the point at issue. Anselm's second exile lasted three years, 
but in 1 106 he met Henry at Bee, and a reconciliation followed. 
Anselm returned to England, and in 1 107, at the Council of 
London, a compromise was arranged. Henry agreed that no 
layman should exercise the right of investiture, while Anselm 
promised that he would not refuse consecration to a person 
elected to a prelacy because the candidate had done homage 
to the king. Henceforward, therefore, elections were to be 
made by the Cathedral Chapters in the King's Court, the bishop- 
elect was to do homage to the king, and after consecration to 
receive the ring and crozier from the archbishop. Anselm's 
death in 1109 ended a career spent in the service of Church 
and State. 

8. Henry's Government.— The victory of Tenchebrai 
and the settlement of the Investiture Quarrel were followed 
by ten years of peace. Henry, supreme in England and 
Normandy, was free to carry out internal reforms. He chose 
as his chief minister the Justiciar Roger, who was elected 
Bishop of Salisbury, and the whole administration was recast. 
While the Great Council of feudal magnates continued to meet 
when the king chose, a smaller body was formed, the Curia 
Regis, partly judicial, partly consultative, consisting of the great 
officials, lay and clerical, and of those whose advice the king 
might consider necessary. Its members when engaged in 
financial business sat in the Exchequer to receive the sheriffs' 
accounts, and to control expenditure. From time to time 
officials visited the counties, and sitting in the local courts 
enforced the financial rights of the Crown, while incidentally 
they dispensed justice. It was during this period also that 
Henry issued a decree ordering the local courts of shire and 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 63 

hundred to meet as in King Edward's time. Thus both central 
and local governments were brought into touch with one 
another, and the range of action of the former increased. 
Further, from the ranks of the official class sprang a new 
race of nobles allied in interest to the Crown, and form- 
ing a counterpoise to the feudal families of the Conquest 
period. 

9. The Succession Question. — The possession of Nor- 
mandy brought Henry into frequent difficulties with his feudal 
superior, Louis VI., the King of France, who supported William 
Clito, son and heir of Duke Robert; and Henry was also 
harassed by the hostility of his neighbour Fulk, Count of 
Anjou. Henry himself had two children, William his heir, and 
Matilda, the wife of the Emperor Henry V. The Norman 
barons had sworn allegiance to William, but in 11 20 the young 
prince, while returning to England, was wrecked in the " White 
Ship," and drowned off the coast of Normandy. As Queen 
Matilda had died in 11 18, Henry married Adela of Louvain. 
The marriage proved fruitless, and he therefore concentrated 
his efforts on securing the succession of his daughter Matilda, 
who on the death of Henry V. had returned to England. The 
barons were persuaded to swear allegiance to her, and the death 
of William Clito while fighting in battle (n 28) removed her 
chief rival. Her position was further strengthened by her 
marriage with Geoffrey, eldest son of Fulk of Anjou. The 
marriage was a politic one, for it disarmed the hostility of the 
crafty and scheming House of Anjou, but it was not popular 
in England or Normandy. On the birth of a son to Matilda 
and Geoffrey in 1133, Henry procured from his barons an 
oath of allegiance to Matilda and her child Henry as his 
successors. 

10. Results of Henry's Reign. — With the death of 
Henry I. in n 35 the period of strong government, dating back 
to the Norman Conquest, came abruptly to a close. The central 
power created by William I. and maintained by William II. 
had been raised to a pitch of great efficiency by Henry and his 
ministers. The native chroniclers complain of the heavy taxes 



64 William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 

which never grew lighter, but they also pay ungrudging tribute 
to the swift justice which overtook all who did wrong. " A 
good man he was, and all men stood in awe of him. No man 
durst misdo against another in his time." By the end of his 
reign the divisions between Saxon and Mercian and Norman 
were fast disappearing. The three Norman kings, William I., 
William II., and Henry I., by strong government, as well as by 
grinding oppression, had stamped out the jarring elements 
which had made Anglo-Saxon unity impossible. Moreover, 
efficient government opened up possibilities of trade hitherto 
unknown. Towns grew, foreign artisans came over, foreign 
merchants visited England, and merchant guilds were intro- 
duced after the Continental pattern. England also shared in 
the ecclesiastical development of the Continent. The Crusades 
drew her into wider spheres of action. Learning revived under 
the sheltering care of the Benedictines, while the new order of 
Cistercians, whose real founder was an Englishman, St. Stephen 
Harding, reclaimed the uncultivated lands of northern England. 
Settled government, settled conditions of life made great de- 
velopments possible, and the nation owed these directly or 
indirectly to the thirty-two years of internal peace which 
Henry's reign secured. The greatness of the debt can be seen 
in the anarchy which burst forth when his strong hand was 
removed. 

11. Stephen's Accession (1 135).— The carefully pre- 
pared plans of Henry I. were completely shattered by the 
promptitude of Stephen, third son of Adela, Henry's sister, the 
wife of the Count of Blois. Stephen had been regarded with 
special favour by his uncle, the late king, and had been 
rewarded for his fidelity by estates in England and Normandy. 
He increased his possessions by his marriage with Matilda, 
heiress of the Count of Boulogne, and his brother Henry held 
the important bishopric of Winchester. Amiable, brave, and 
courteous, Stephen relied on his popularity to condone his 
breach of faith in putting forward his claim to the throne 
against Matilda, whose rights, both by oath and by gratitude 
to his uncle, he was bound to uphold. With characteristic 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 65 

boldness he at once sailed from Normandy, and landing in 
Kent he was acclaimed king by the Londoners. He hurried 
to Winchester, and there secured the royal treasure. The late 
king's ministers, in fear of the weak rule of a queen, rallied to 
his side under the guidance of Roger of Salisbury, while the 
barons, hating the rule of Matilda and of her Angevin husband, 
were easily won over by lavish promises of reward. Supported 
by the Church and accepted by the barons and ministers, 
Stephen's election was secured. Even Robert, Earl of 
Gloucester, illegitimate son of Henry I. and therefore Matilda's 
half-brother, recognized him as king. 

12. The Battle of the Standard (11 38).— Matilda and 
Geoffrey had weakened their chances of success in England by 
trying to secure Normandy, and for the moment their cause 
seemed hopeless. But Stephen soon undermined his position 
by his reckless grants of estates to those whose support was 
necessary to him, and the barons saw in the claim of Matilda 
a chance of shaking off the oppressive rule which in the 
previous reign had curtailed their feudal claims. In 1138 the 
invasion of England by David King of Scotland, led to a 
rising in favour of Matilda, which was joined by Robert of 
Gloucester and a number of barons. David pushed through 
Northumberland and Durham, ravaging as he went, and entered 
Yorkshire. The aged Archbishop Thurstan assembled the 
northern barons and organized the resistance of the people. 
The English army, under Walter Lespec, encountered the 
Scots near Northallerton. In the midst of the English was a 
cart bearing a standard surmounted by a cross, to which was 
fixed a box of silver containing the Blessed Sacrament, and 
beneath the cross waved the banners of St. Peter, St. Wilfrid 
of Ripon, and St. John of Beverley. In the ensuing battle the 
Scots were completely defeated. Stephen, however, gladly 
bought the cessation of war by agreeing that David's son 
Henry should hold the earldom of Northumberland, except 
the fortresses of Newcastle and Bamborough, as a fief of the 
English Crown. Meanwhile, in the south of England, Robert 
of Gloucester and Miles Earl of Hereford declared for Matilda, 

F 



66 William II. , Henry L, and Stephen. 

and civil war began. Stephen, however, showed marked 
military skill, and was able to drive his two chief enemies 
out of the country. 

13. The Quarrel with the Church (1 139).— Stephen 
owed his election as king to the support of the Church, and 
his succession had been confirmed by Pope Innocent II. 
Roger of Salisbury, the great Justiciar of Henry I., with his 
son Roger the Chancellor, and his two nephews Nigel, Bishop 
of Ely, the Treasurer, and Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, 
formed a most powerful combination of clerical and ministerial 
interests. Stephen, however, did not hesitate at this crisis in 
his fortunes to alienate his chief supporters. Fearing that 
Roger and his relations might throw their influence on the side 
of Matilda, he tried to disarm them by demanding the sur- 
render of their castles. The aged Roger of Salisbury, his son 
the Chancellor, and Alexander of Lincoln, were arrested and 
imprisoned with every circumstance of indignity. The clergy 
at once took the part of the injured prelates. Stephen's 
brother Henry of Winchester sided with his order, and Matilda 
seizing her opportunity landed in England. 

14. The Civil War. — The collapse of the administrative 
system accompanied the outbreak of war, and ten years of 
anarchy followed. The barons on both sides took advantage 
of the struggle to build castles, garrisoned by foreign mercenaries 
and native adventurers. Men and women were imprisoned 
and put to the torture till they surrendered their goods. 
Thousands died of hunger and pestilence ; while burnt villages 
and fields untilled marked the sway of the feudal banditti. 
Both Stephen and Matilda brought over foreign troops, who 
enriched themselves by plundering every district through which 
they passed. " Every rich man," says the Chronicle, " made 
his castles and held them against the king, and filled the land 
with castles. . . . They took the men who they weened had 
any goods, both by night and by day, men and women, and 
put them in prison for gold and silver, and tortured them with 
unspeakable torture ; never were martyrs so tortured as they 
were. . . . Even if the land was tilled the earth bare no corn, 



William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 67 

for it was all undone with their deeds ; and they said openly 
that Christ and His holy ones were asleep." 

Matilda's main supporters were in the north and west, 
while Stephen relied on London and the eastern and southern 
countries. In 1141 Stephen was besieging Lincoln Castle, 
when Ralph, Earl of Chester, and Robert of Gloucester, 
marching to its relief, defeated the royal army and captured 
Stephen. A general submission to Matilda followed, and at 
London she was formally recognized as Lady of the English 
by Henry of Winchester, acting as papal legate, and by the 
leading barons. But she soon alienated her supporters by her 
harsh conduct to the adherents of Stephen. When, therefore, 
Matilda of Boulogne, Stephen's Queen, advanced on London, 
the citizens rose in revolt, and the Empress fled to Winchester. 
Henry of Winchester renounced his allegiance to her, and the 
capture of Robert of Gloucester forced Matilda to release 
Stephen in exchange for her half-brother. In 1142 she was 
besieged by Stephen at Oxford, but managed to escape to 
Wallingford. The war now degenerated into a series of 
desultory skirmishes, and as the death of Robert of Gloucester 
in 1 147 made Matilda's cause hopeless, the Empress abandoned 
the struggle and retired to Normandy. Here, through the skill 
of her husband Geoffrey, her position had been secured, and 
the whole duchy acknowledged her rule. 

15. The Treaty of Wallingford (1153). — In 1153 a 
fresh impulse was given to the war by the landing of Henry of 
Anjou, the son of Matilda and Geoffrey. He had been Duke 
of Normandy since 1149, an d the death of his father in 1151 
put him in possession of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. His 
marriage with Eleanor, the heiress of Aquitaine, who had been 
repudiated by her husband, Louis VII., gave him still greater 
resources, and enabled him at the age of nineteen to undertake 
the conquest of England. His success was rapid, and Stephen 
at last weary of the struggle agreed to terms. Stephen's son 
Eustace had recently died ; and so long as his own position 
was secured he had no longer any interest in continuing the 
war. By the treaty of Wallingford it was agreed that Stephen 



68 William II., Henry I., and Stephen. 

should remain king, and that Henry should be his heir. A 
scheme of pacification was agreed on, which included the 
destruction of the "adulterine" or unlicensed castles, the 
restoration of agriculture, and the expulsion of the mercenaries. 
The scheme was only partly carried out when Stephen died 
eleven months later. His reign had served as an object lesson 
to the nation, and taught it to understand what miseries 
unrestrained feudalism entailed. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D 

Death of Lanfranc 1089. 

Anselm made Archbishop 1093. 

Defeat of Belesme 1102. 

Battle of Tenchebrai 1106. 

Compromise with Anselm 1107. 

Death of Prince William 1120. 

Death of William Clito 1128. 

Birth of Henry of Anjou 1133. 

Battle of the Standard 1138. 

Quarrel with the Church 1139. 

Battle of Lincoln n^ I# 

Treaty of Wallingford ueo 



CHAPTER XI. 

HENRY II. (1154-1189). 

I. The Character and Position of Henry II.— Henry 

of Anjou, who succeeded to the throne at the age of twenty- 
one, was remarkable for strength of body and mind. His 
vigorous but coarsely built frame seemed incapable of fatigue. 
He wore out his courtiers by his rapid progresses through his 
heterogeneous dominions, and as if to show his contempt for 
the comfort of the motley collection of courtiers, bishops, 
ministers, and suitors, who followed him, he would break up 
his camp on the evening of the day on which it had been 
pitched, or would stop mid-way on his journey at some wood- 
land hut, where there was only accommodation for himself. 
But the activity of his mind was equally amazing. His desire 
to master all the secrets of government and law was insatiable. 
Henry himself presided over the Curia Regis, and he would 
draft with his own hand a charter of privileges to a monastery 
or town. He delighted in the minute and tedious disputes 
of the lawyers, and could hold his own in the discussions 
of the scholars whom he welcomed at his court. He spoke 
Latin and French, and though probably ignorant of English, 
he understood the dialects of his continental dominions. Men 
said of him that he had always in his hand a weapon or 
a book. And with all this, he grasped the threads of his 
international negotiations, meeting with consummate skill the 
ceaseless intrigues of his enemy Louis VII. of France. At 
his court envoys appeared from Jerusalem, Moorish Spain, 
and Norway. Statesmen were trained by him, and under his 
influence England caught a glimpse of a wider destiny. No 

69 




English Miles 
o 20 40 60 80 120 160 

Boundary of Dominions 

of Henry II 

Boundary of Dominions 
ruled by Vassals 



Walkex & Cockerell ! 



Henry II. yi 

wonder that with all this persistent outburst of energy his 
coarser nature at times came to the surface. There were 
moments when his freckled face and grey eyes blazed with 
fury, when no measure of vindictive spite seemed beyond him, 
and when before his terrified courtiers he flung himself on the 
ground in a paroxysm of passion. 

2. The Restoration of Order. — Henry's first duty was 
the reconstruction of the administration, and he at once began 
to carry out the reforms settled at Wallingford in 1153. His 
task was difficult, but his position in England was strengthened 
by his prestige as ruler of the greater part of France. From 
his mother Matilda he had inherited Normandy, and from his 
father Geoffrey the counties of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, 
while by his astute marriage with Eleanor, the divorced wife of 
Louis VII., 1 he had acquired a principality which stretched 
from the Loire to the Pyrenees. He had claims to the over- 
lordship of Toulouse, and his grip on the north and west coasts 
of France enabled him to control the great rivers, the Loire 
and the Seine. 

Within two months of the death of Stephen, Henry had 
been elected and crowned at London. A charter was issued 
granting all the liberties enjoyed under Henfy I., and orders 
were sent out for expulsion of the foreign mercenaries and the 
destruction of the unlicensed castles. The lavish grants of 
land made by Stephen and Matilda were annulled. To these 
measures some of the barons offered resistance, but Henry's 
prompt action forced the chiefs of the opposition, the Count of 
Aumale, Roger of Hereford, and Hugh Mortimer to submit. 
The "adulterine castles," which in the last reign had been 
little better than caverns of murder, were everywhere destroyed. 
In 1 157 Henry obtained from Malcolm of Scotland the restitu- 
tion of Cumberland, which had been surrendered by Stephen. 
Meanwhile the great departments of State, the Exchequer, and 
the Curia Regis, had been restored, vacant sheriffdoms had 

1 It should be understood that the expression "divorced" is here 
used to denote the recognition of a union as invalid on the ground of some 
impediment ecclesiastical or otherwise. 



72 Henry II. 

been filled up, and new ministers appointed. The most 
important were Richard de Lucy, the justiciar, and Thomas 
of London, the chancellor and future archbishop. 

In 1 159 Henry led an expedition to the South of France 
to assert his claims over the county of Toulouse. The 
war against Louis VII. was indecisive, but it brought into 
prominence the institution of Scutage. Under the feudal 
system tenants-in-chief were bound to serve the king for 
forty days in the year. This for a distant expedition like 
that in hand was both inconvenient and expensive. The 
practice of commuting service for money payments was at 
this time making its way throughout the feudal system, and 
had been applied to military service as early as the reign of 
Henry I. It was now used on a wider scale, Henry accepting 
from his tenants Scutage or shield-money instead of personal 
service. This had the advantage of making the king inde- 
pendent of the unruly feudal levies, while it enabled him to 
hire mercenaries on whom he could rely. In addition it 
tended to disarm the barons by removing the pretext for 
keeping up large military establishments. For four years 
Henry remained abroad, England meanwhile being governed 
by the justiciar and chancellor. The administration was 
carried on with great efficiency, the revenues were collected 
and administered with care, and the coinage was reformed. 
Abroad, Henry's success was unchecked. In n 62 his position 
was second to that of the Emperor alone. He had thrown the 
weight of his influence on the side of Alexander III. against 
the anti-pope supported by Frederick Barbarossa; he had 
defeated the intrigues of his enemies, domestic and foreign, 
and while strengthening his hold on Normandy and Anjou, 
he had got himself acknowledged overlord of Brittany. The 
success of this, the happiest part of his reign, was brought to 
a close by Henry's quarrel with the Church, which led up to 
the great catastrophe of his life and embittered the rest of his 
reign. 

3. Thomas the Archbishop.— Thomas the Chancellor 
was the son of a Norman merchant Gilbert, surnamed 



Henry II. 73 

Becket, who had been portreeve of London. The future 
archbishop was educated at Merton Priory in Surrey, and 
later on studied in London and Paris. He was admitted 
to Archbishop Theobald's household and received minor 
orders. After holding various preferments he was appointed 
by Theobald to be Archdeacon of Canterbury. As chancellor 
he had co-operated with Henry in restoring order, and his 
intimacy with Henry was so marked that king and chancellor 
were said to be " of one heart and mind." The splendour 
of his attire and household contrasted with the rougher habits 
of the king. He figured prominently in the king's foreign 
expeditions, and archdeacon though he was, he carried on 
military operations both in Toulouse and on the Norman 
border. On the death of Theobald, Henry determined on 
Thomas as the new primate, hoping apparently to control 
State and Church through his chancellor-archbishop. In spite 
of the chancellor's warning that as archbishop he would forfeit 
the king's favour, Henry persisted, and under severe pressure 
from the royal ministers Thomas was elected by the monks of 
Canterbury. He was ordained priest, and on the following 
day consecrated bishop. Shortly after, to Henry's surprise, he 
resigned the chancellorship. 

The archbishop threw himself into his new duties with 
characteristic ardour. In the midst of a licentious court his 
life had been steadfastly pure and religious, and the responsi- 
bilities of his high office now brought to light the deeper side of 
his nature. The outward pomp of his life was still maintained; 
while garbed in sackcloth covered by the black cloak of a 
monk, he ministered to the poor and needy, and set to his 
monks an example of an austere and religious life. His aim 
was to put down worldliness and immorality amongst the 
clergy; and to prevent future abuses, he refused to ordain 
persons whom he did not know to be of sound character and 
learning. At the same time he looked after the temporal 
interests of his see, claiming the restitution of estates which 
had been alienated by his predecessors. In n 63, for the first 
time since the Conquest, the royal demand for taxation met 



74 Henry II. 

with a successful opponent. Henry wished to increase his 
revenues by laying hands on a customary and quasi-voluntary 
payment made by the counties to the sheriffs in return for 
their services as administrators. Thomas refused to allow 
this, stating his willingness to make the payment to the sheriff 
if he did his duty, but insisting that the king himself had no 
right to levy it. In his resistance he upheld the cause of the 
whole country, and set an important constitutional precedent. 
The friendship between the king and archbishop, already 
weakened, was shattered by the controversy over the question 
of " criminous clerks." 

4. Clerical Immunities. — The modern conception of 
a Government is that its primary duty is to enforce the law 
without consideration of persons. The mediaeval concep- 
tion, on the contrary, contemplated, not unity, but diversity 
of law. Every shire and town, every order of men, whether 
clergy, barons, or merchants, tried to obtain from the Crown 
a privileged position. The Crown itself held large tracts 
of country, the forests, which were under special laws. 
Moreover, it must be noted that in the time of Henry II. 
there was no coherent body of laws, and these immunities, 
in a sense, were the only safeguards against the arbitrary 
action of the Crown. The clerical exemptions were, therefore, 
a striking example of a widely spread system. But the in- 
creasing power and efficiency of the Government under Henry 
II. were accompanied by the gradual creation of a body of law 
based on the decisions of the Curia Regis, and this tended to 
conflict with all privileges which limited its action. In the 
Anglo-Saxon period the bishop had sat in the shire-court, and 
there decided spiritual cases; but William I. had put an end 
to this by ordering that spiritual cases should be tried by 
canon law in the bishop's court, hoping that the secular and 
ecclesiastical authorities would combine to enforce each other's 
decisions. Mutual jealousies prevented this. Moreover, since 
the Conquest the Canon Law had developed, and the fact that 
the jurisdiction of the Church courts extended not only to 
those who had taken monastic vows or had received any 



Henry II. 75 

of the orders of the Church, but also to the causes of widows 
and orphans and questions of marriages and wills, kept much 
legal business away from the secular courts, and diminished 
their revenues. The Church courts could not inflict any 
punishments involving the shedding of blood, and their penal- 
ties stood in marked contrast to the brutal mutilations inflicted 
by the royal judges for petty offences. " In short, the privi- 
leges for which Thomas contended transferred a large part of 
the people — and the most helpless part — from the bloody grasp 
of the king's courts to the milder jurisdiction of the bishop." 
(Freeman.) But the system was open to abuse, so that the 
king's judges could assert that in nine years a hundred murders 
had been committed with impunity. The difficulty could only 
be solved by statesmanship on both sides, but, unfortunately, it 
was not approached in that spirit. 

5. The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164). — Henry 
now demanded that the bishops should confirm the " customs " 
in force under Henry I. On the advice of the archbishop 
they did so, "saving their order," but, later on, Thomas, 
misled by persons who pretended to have been sent by the 
Pope, withdrew his opposition. In n 64 a Great Council was 
held at Clarendon, and Henry ordered that the "customs" 
of Henry I. should be reduced to writing. The result was 
the Constitutions of Clarendon, which purport to be the out- 
come of a sworn enquiry by the whole of the Great Council, 
but which Thomas declared to be the work of De Lucy and a 
French lawyer. The most important clauses were : — 

(1) A cleric accused of crime must come into the king's 
court to answer the charge. He was then to go to the 
Church court for trial, a secular official watching the case. 
On conviction the culprit was not to be protected by the 
Church any further (i.e. he was to be degraded by the bishop 
and punished as a layman). 

(2) The chief clergy were not to leave the realm without 
the leave of the king. 

(3) No tenant-in-chief was to be excommunicated without 
the king's leave. 



j6 Henry II. 

(4) No appeal was to be carried to Rome without the 
king's consent. 

"(5) Laymen accused in the Church courts were to be con- 
fronted by legal accusers, and if these were not forthcoming, 
the sheriff was to cause twelve lawful men of the neigh- 
bourhood to swear to the facts in the presence of the 
bishop. 

(6) Disputes between the clergy and laity as to the tenure 
of land were to be decided by twelve recognitors before the 
justiciar. 

(7) Bishops and abbots were to be elected as arranged in 
1 107 (see p. 62). 

Some of these clauses undoubtedly represented the practice 
aimed at by the Norman kings, but this could not be said of the 
first, while the fifth and sixth were part of the legal innovations of 
the reign. It is clear, therefore, that, under cover of enforcing 
the " customs " of his grandfather, Henry was trying to force 
on the clergy an acknowledgment that their rights, which in 
substance had always been recognised, had no valid basis. 
Thomas, after six days' discussion, withdrew his earlier verbal 
acceptance, and refused to set his seal to the Constitutions, 
contending that to accept them would be to run counter to the 
Common Law of Christendom. 

Henry's irritation made him lose sight of the issues and 
descend to a policy of ignoble persecution. A Great Council 
was held at Northampton, and to this Thomas received not a 
direct summons as the first subject of the Crown, but a citation 
from the Sheriff of Kent, as was customary in the case of a 
lesser tenant-in-chief. He was fined ^500 by the Council for 
refusing to plead in a lay court in a suit between himself and 
one of the king's servants, and this was followed by other 
heavy demands, culminating in the order for the production of 
the accounts of his eight years of chancellorship. Thomas 
fled to Louis VII., and appealed to Alexander III. at Sens. 
Henry confiscated the possessions of the See of Canterbury, 
and banished all the archbishop's relations and dependents. 
For six years Thomas remained in France, his fortunes varying 



Henry II. 77 

with the needs of Alexander, who could not afford to throw 
Henry on to the side of Frederick Barbarossa. 

6. The Assize of Clarendon (1166) ; and the Inquest 
of Sheriffs (1170). — Henry now issued one of the greatest 
measures of his reign. At a date which cannot be precisely 
fixed, Henry, by the Great Assize, had applied the system of 
inquiry by sworn " recognitors " to disputes as to the ownership 
of land. Instead of the trial by battle, which the Normans had 
introduced, the dispute could, with the consent of the litigants, 
be settled before the royal judges by the unanimous oath of 
twelve knights of the neighbourhood. This procedure, which 
reappears in the Constitutions of Clarendon, was now utilised 
for criminal justice. By the Assize of Clarendon it was 
ordered that — 

(1) Inquiries were to be held by twelve lawful men of the 
hundred and four from each township, as to whether there were 
in their neighbourhood any persons accused by report of being 
murderers, or robbers, or thieves, or receivers of such. The 
accused were to be presented to the itinerant judge or the 
sheriff, and were then to go to the ordeal by water. Failure to 
pass the ordeal was to be punished by the loss of a foot. 

(2) All men were to attend the county courts and join in 
these presentations. 

(3) No private jurisdiction was to exclude the itinerant 
judges. This was aimed at the rights of jurisdiction exercised 
by the barons. 

In ii 70 Henry struck another blow at feudal influences. 
The power of the sheriff had been greatly increased by the 
disappearance of the earl and bishop from the shire-court. 
The sheriff controlled the fyrd and the contingents of the lesser 
tenants-in-chief; he was still powerful in the towns, and he 
managed the finances of the shire. It was necessary to bring 
so powerful an official under the immediate control of the 
Government. In 1170 Henry suddenly returned from abroad 
and displaced all the sheriffs, issuing an inquiry into their 
conduct. Although apparently acquitted, they were replaced 
by officers of the Exchequer whom Henry could trust. 



j8 Henry II. 

7. The Martyrdom of Archbishop Thomas.— Through- 
out these years the quarrel with Thomas showed little prospect 
of a settlement. Behind the cause of the archbishop all 
Henry's enemies tried to find opportunities for their animosi- 
ties. Thomas brooded over his wrongs in exile, and refused 
all concessions as treason to the cause of the Church. The 
Pope tacitly declined to endorse the conduct of either the 
archbishop or the king. Matters were brought to a crisis by 
the coronation of the king's eldest son Henry by the Arch- 
bishop of York. This was a further invasion of the rights of 
the See of Canterbury, and was marred, in addition, by the 
omission to crown the young Henry's wife, the daughter of 
Louis VII. The king drew back when he realised his blunder, 
and made a vague peace with Thomas, leaving practically 
everything an open question. The return of the archbishop 
was a triumphal progress, but his action hastened on the catas- 
trophe. Before the reconciliation, the Pope had at last taken 
the matter into his hands, and had excommunicated the 
bishops who had taken part in the coronation. As this struck 
Roger of York, Gilbert of London, and Joscelin of Salisbury, 
the bishops planned to thwart it by seizing the papal letters as 
soon as Thomas landed. The archbishop met this by sending 
on the letters in advance, and when asked by the royal officers 
to remove the censures of the Church he refused absolution 
until the bishops made amends to him for the wrong they had 
done. The three bishops hurried to Normandy to lay their 
case before the king. Henry, in an outburst of passion, 
exclaimed, "What a parcel of fools and dastards have I 
nourished in my house that none of them can be found to 
avenge me on one upstart clerk." Four of his knights secretly 
left the court, crossed over to England, and on December 29, 
1 170, murdered the archbishop in the cathedral of Canter- 
bury. 

8. Popular Indignation.— The king had been prepared 
to take some severe measures against the archbishop, but it is 
impossible that he could have sanctioned this atrocity. The 
news of the action of his knights reduced him to despair, and 



Henry II. 79 

for three days he refused to speak with any one or to take 
food. The outburst of indignation throughout Europe showed 
him the danger he was in. To the people of England the 
archbishop had always appeared as the upholder of the cause 
of the oppressed. When the barons had threatened him at the 
Council of Northampton, he had been received with blessings 
by the crowd. And for this there was a deep reason. Great 
as were the ultimate results of the reforms in the .procedure of 
justice which Henry was attempting, the lower orders as yet 
could only see the oppression and exactions which the changes 
entailed. The Assize of Clarendon, for instance, had carried 
extortion into every county. Thomas had died primarily for 
the liberties of the Church, but those liberties were the only 
shelter against the rapacity of the royal officers and the inhuman 
punishments of the secular law. To the English people, there- 
fore, Thomas was their martyr in a special sense, and the flow 
of miracles, which began at once after his death, strengthened 
their belief. The canonisation of St. Thomas by the Pope, in 
1 173, set the seal of the Church's approval on the popular 
canonisation which had gone before. 

9. The Expedition to Ireland (1171). — Early in his 
reign Henry had looked forward to the conquest of Ireland, 
and in 1155 he had obtained from the English Pope, 
Hadrian IV., the Bull Laudabiliter, granting Ireland to the 
English Crown. No attempt, however, was made to take 
advantage of the grant till sixteen years later. In n 66, 
Dermot Mac-Murrough, King of Leinster, who had been 
expelled by Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, applied 
to Henry for help, and after swearing fealty to Henry, obtained 
leave to enlist any of the king's servants to serve in Ireland. 
He obtained the services of Richard de Clare, Earl of Striguil 
(later known as Strongbow), a powerful baron on the South 
Welsh border, and of other adventurers. While Richard pre- 
pared his expedition, a number of knights crossed to Ireland 
and gained a series of victories. In 1170 Strongbow arrived, 
and was married to Dermot's daughter. Dublin was captured, 
but the invaders were hard pressed by an army of Northmen, 



80 Henry II. 

and by the Irish under Roderick O'Connor. As it was impos- 
sible for Henry to allow any of his barons to establish them- 
selves in an independent position in Ireland, he forbade his 
subjects to meddle any further in Ireland. Shortly after 
Henry himself, anxious to be out of the way until he had 
made his peace with the Pope, came over with an army, and 
received the homage of the English adventurers and of the 
Irish chieftains. A council of the Irish Church was held at 
Cashel, and the bishops submitted to Henry, and agreed to 
introduce reforms. This enabled Henry to appear to the 
world as anxious for the welfare of the Church. Unfortunately 
for Ireland, Henry was now called away by the news that the 
papal legates were in Normandy, with powers to absolve him 
on condition of a complete submission on his part, and that, 
unless he hurried, his dominions would be laid under an 
interdict. He therefore returned to Normandy, made his 
submission to the legates, cleared himself by oath of com- 
plicity in the crime of his knights, and renounced the Con- 
stitutions of Clarendon. Meanwhile the good work which he 
had begun in Ireland fell to pieces. In 1 177 he made his son 
John King of Ireland, but a fruitless expedition left the country 
in a worse state than before. Henry's interference, therefore, 
only began the unhappy policy by which England would 
neither rule Ireland nor allow the Irish to work out their own 
system of government. 

10. The Rebellion of 1173-1174. — The humiliation of 
Henry now gave his enemies the opportunity for which they had 
waited so long. The king had alienated his wife, and his 
eldest son, the young King Henry, was offended to find that 
his coronation had brought him no real share of power. His 
demand for some portion of his inheritance was rejected by 
his father. The baronage had received from the king one 
long series of blows aimed at their feudal privileges. They 
chafed under the invasion of their jurisdictions by the royal 
judges and the exactions of the Exchequer officials. " Their 
castles had been taken from them, their franchises invaded, 
their military service exacted or money taken in commutation : 



Henry II. 81 

every advantage that the feudal obligation gave to the king he 
had used, but he had allowed them no liberty of tyranny in 
return." (Stubbs.) 

In 1 173 the young Henry fled to his father-in-law, Louis VII., 
where he was joined by his brothers Richard and Geoffrey, and 
a great Continental conspiracy against their father was formed. 
The struggle in France was short, for Henry's force of 10,000 
mercenaries enabled him to defeat the coalition headed by 
Louis VII. The English part of the conspiracy was a more 
serious matter, for it comprised those barons who inherited the 
untamed feudal spirit. Hugh, Earl of Chester ; Hugh Bigod, 
Earl of Norfolk ; Robert, Earl of Leicester ; Roger Mowbray 
and William of Aumale, were joined by William the Lion, King 
of Scotland, who received a promise of the cession of all the 
country north of the Tyne. Henry's cause was upheld by a 
few faithful barons of the first rank, but mainly by Richard de 
Lucy, who struck the first blow by capturing the town of 
Leicester. He then, in company with Humphrey Bohun the 
Constable, advanced on Berwick, driving the Scots, who had 
been ravaging the north, across the border. He was recalled by 
the news that the Earl of Leicester had landed in Suffolk with 
a force of Flemish mercenaries. Bohun, however, with a small 
body of troops, attacked Leicester and defeated his army. 
The earl was captured, and 10,000 Flemings were slain. 
Leicester was sent to Normandy, and was imprisoned at 
Falaise in company with his fellow conspirator Hugh of 
Chester. 

Early in 11 74 William the Lion invaded England. The 
collapse of Henry's power seemed imminent. The royal 
castles of Northampton, Nottingham, and Norwich were seized 
by the rebels, while a great fleet gathered at Gravelines, and 
threatened England with invasion. The crisis caused Henry 
to leave for the moment his Continental realms to their fate, 
while he sailed for England, taking his prisoners with him. 
Landing at Southampton, he pushed on to Canterbury, where 
he did penance before the martyr's tomb. This was imme- 
diately followed by the news of the crushing defeat of his 

G 



82 Henry II. 

enemies. The people of the north had rallied round the 
king's officers, the Scots had been taken by surprise at 
Alnwick, and King William with his chieftains had been made 
prisoners. Louis VII. at once gave up the projected invasion, 
and the fleet dispersed. The rebellion immediately collapsed, 
the rebel earls submitting in rapid succession. Peace was 
made with Scotland at Falaise; William acknowledged that 
he and his successors held Scotland as vassals of the English 
kings. Henry's treatment of his rebellious barons was marked 
by great leniency. He contented himself with the levy of fines 
and the destruction of some of their castles. By the terms of 
the treaty with Louis VII. a general amnesty was agreed upon. 
Thus ended the last feudal struggle on English soil. 

ii. Henry's Last Reforms. — Henry now stayed two 
years in England, and restored once more the working of the 
administration. In 1 176 he issued the Assize of Northampton, 
which renewed the Assize of Clarendon and extended its 
procedure to accusations of forgery and arson. It also in- 
creased the penalty for failure to pass the ordeal. In 1178 he 
chose five of his own servants to form a court of appeal, 
reserving, however, the hardest cases for his own hearing in 
council. This measure marked an important stage in the 
development of the Court of Common Pleas as a distinct part 
of a central judicial system. In 1181 the Assize of Arms 
reorganised the fyrd, which, as had been proved in the recent 
rebellion, was a most efficient weapon against the feudal party. 
Every freeman was ordered to arm himself according to his 
means, and this obligation was fixed on a graduated system. 

12. The Rebellious Sons. — For the rest of the reign 
Henry's work lay in France, and his chief troubles sprang 
from the undutiful conduct of his sons and the consequent 
interference of the French king. In 1180 Louis VII. was 
succeeded by his son Philip Augustus, who, twenty-four years 
later, was to strike down the great Angevin Empire which 
Henry had built up with so much labour. The quarrels of the 
three brothers, Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey, with their father 
and with each other, kept Henry's Continental possessions in 



Henry II. 83 

a state of unrest. The young Henry was already designated 
heir to Normandy and Anjou ; Richard was given the Duchy 
of Aquitaine, while Geoffrey was provided for by his marriage 
with Constance, heiress of Brittany. In neither Aquitaine nor 
Brittany was peace preserved, and Henry's demand that the 
two brothers should do homage to their eldest brother met 
with a passionate refusal. The nobles of Aquitaine revolted 
against the stern rule of Richard, while Geoffrey was equally 
unpopular in Brittany. The death of the young Henry in 
1183, and of Geoffrey in 1 186, left Richard heir to the Angevin 
Empire. 

In 1 187 Christendom was startled by the news that the 
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem had succumbed to the Saracens. 
Saladin was in possession of Jerusalem itself. The Latin 
kingdom had largely depended for its existence on the dis- 
union of the Turks, but the Infidels had now been united 
into a great empire by Saladin. In 1185 Heraclius, Patriarch 
of Jerusalem, had visited England to beseech Henry to suc- 
cour Baldwin IV. ; but Henry, acting on the advice of his 
barons, had refused. Baldwin and his successor were now 
dead, and the crown of Jerusalem had devolved upon Guy 
of Lusignan, who was defeated at a great battle at Tiberias 
in 1 187. Three months later Jerusalem fell. The Pope, 
Gregory VIII., appealed to western Christendom to rescue 
the Holy Places, and both the kings of England and France 
took the Cross. Richard of Aquitaine was eager to start at 
once. Henry ordered the collection of the " Saladin Tithe " — 
a tax of ten per cent, on personal property — a source of wealth 
which hitherto had not been laid under contribution. 

Henry's share in the Crusade was prevented by the renewal 
of the quarrel between himself on the one hand, and Philip 
and Richard on the other. In 1189 Philip and Richard 
invaded Maine, while Henry shut himself up in le Mans, 
the town of his birth. Philip's advance forced him to retreat 
precipitately. Henry then made a final effort and marched 
on Tours, only to see the town taken before his eyes. Racked 
by illness he was compelled to accept any terms which Philip 



84 Henry II. 

and Richard chose to impose upon him. As part of his 
humiliation, Richard was to receive the homage of all the 
barons of the Angevin dominions, and Richard's partisans 
in the late struggle were to be released from their obligations 
to Henry. The king asked for a list of those vassals whose 
services he was to lose, and the first name was that of his 
favourite son John. Henry's iron will gave way under this 
accumulation of sorrows and disasters. He turned his face 
to the wall, crying, " Let things go now as they will ; I care 
no more for myself or for the world." He lingered on for 
a few days at Chinon, whither he had been carried. At his 
own request they bore him into the chapel of the castle where 
with great devotion he made his confession and received the 
last consolations of the Church. He died immediately after. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

The Great Scutage 1159. 

Constitutions of Clarendon 1164. 

Assize of Clarendon 1 166. 

Martyrdom of St. Thomas 1170. 

The last feudal rebellion 1174. 

Assize of Northampton 1176. 

Assize of Arms . . , n8i. 



CHAPTER XII. 

RICHARD I. (1189-1199); JOHN (1199-1216). 

I. Richard's Accession. — The whole of the Angevin 
dominions now passed to a prince whose chief aim was renown 
in war. Richard only spent six months in England during the 
whole of his reign. But this did not prove disadvantageous, 
for the government was carried on in his absence by sound 
administrators, trained in the methods of Henry II., and for 
England, therefore, the reign is a period of steady constitutional 
development. 

As soon as his election and coronation were over, Richard, 
who had taken the Cross in 1187, used every means to raise 
money. The great offices of State, as was customary at the 
time, were put up for sale. William Longchamp paid ^"3,000 
for the Chancellorship, while Hugh Puiset, Bishop of Durham, 
bought the earldom of Northumberland. William of Scotland 
was released from the duty of doing homage imposed by the 
treaty of Falaise on paying 10,000 marks. To keep John 
quiet, Richard gave him the county of Mortain, the chief 
barony of Normandy, and large grants of estates in England, 
including the government of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. 

2. The Rule of Longchamp. — Richard had appointed 
Hugh Puiset, Bishop of Durham, to be justiciar, but he gave 
such wide powers to William Longchamp as to make the 
latter practically equal to the justiciar. Early in n 90 
Longchamp displaced Hugh Puiset in the justiciarship, and 
as he was shortly after made papal legate, he ruled supreme 
in Church and State. But the justiciar soon roused the hatred 
of all parties. He had no knowledge of England, and he 

85 



86 Richard I. and John. 

repaid with contempt the aversion he aroused. But he was 
a loyal servant of the king, and Richard, like his father, clung 
to those to whom he had once given his confidence. Secure 
in the royal favour, William would have maintained his 
position, but for the intervention of John. Richard had 
exacted an oath of John to leave England for three years, 
but before leaving for the Crusade he had released John from 
the obligation. John therefore returned at once to England 
and organised the opposition against the justiciar. In 1191 
Longchamp brought matters to a crisis by arresting Geoffrey, 
illegitimate son of Henry II., who had been nominated to 
the Archbishopric of York, but had promised, like John, to 
keep out of England. All parties combined against Long- 
champ in resenting the outrage. A great council of barons 
was held at London and Longchamp was deposed from his 
offices of State. Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of Rouen, 
who had been sent by Richard with power to act as need 
dictated, succeeded Longchamp as justiciar. 

3. The Third Crusade (1189-1192). — Richard's con- 
duct during the Crusade was in keeping with his character, for 
it was marked on the one hand by brilliant feats of arms, and 
on the other by a complete disregard of statesmanship. The 
Third Crusade was joined by three sovereigns, the Emperor 
Frederic Barbarossa, Richard I., and Philip Augustus. The 
emperor, leading his forces through the Eastern Empire of 
Asia "Minor, lost the greater part of his army on the journey, 
and was drowned while fording a river in Cilicia (1190). 
Richard and Philip spent the winter at Messina, where the 
seeds were sown of that mutual jealousy, which more than 
any other cause wrecked the Third Crusade. Richard was 
joined by his mother, Eleanor, and by Berengaria of Navarre, 
to whom he was now betrothed, thus breaking his engage- 
ment to marry Philip's sister Alice. He left Sicily early in 
1 191, and sailing to Cyprus, conquered that island from its 
ruler, Isaac Comnenos, who had maltreated some English 
sailors. Thence he embarked for Palestine, and joined Philip 
at Acre. 



Richard I. and John. 87 

The town of Acre had been besieged by the Christians for two 
years, but the besiegers themselves were in their turn hemmed 
by an immense army under Saladin. The arrival of Philip and 
Richard turned the scale in favour of the Christians, and Acre 
fell. Unfortunately, Richard's prowess had already roused the 
jealousy of the other leaders of the Crusade. He quarrelled 
with Leopold, Duke of Austria, and further angered his 
colleagues by supporting Guy of Lusignan, who held the 
kingdom of Jerusalem in right of his wife Sibyl, niece of 
Baldwin III. Conrad of Montferrat, the rival claimant, 
was supported by Philip and the other leaders. Philip 
therefore returned home, leaving Richard to carry on the 
struggle. The English king continued his career of victory. 
He defeated Saladin at the battle of Arsouf, and captured the 
important seaport of Ascalon (1192). Twice he led his troops 
within a few miles of Jerusalem, but realising that, surrounded 
as he was in Palestine by treacherous colleagues, and that, 
threatened by the intrigues of Philip and John in France and 
England, success was impossible, he negotiated a truce for three 
years with Saladin, and left Palestine. By the truce he secured 
to the Christians the right of free access to Jerusalem. As 
Conrad of Montferrat had been assassinated, the titular crown 
of Jerusalem was given to Henry of Champagne, and Richard 
compensated Guy of Lusignan by the gift of Cyprus. 

Richard now left his troops under the leadership of Hubert 
Walter, Bishop of Salisbury, and sailing from Palestine, landed 
with a few followers at the head of the Adriatic. While trying 
to penetrate in disguise through Germany, he was arrested 
by his enemy, Duke Leopold of Austria, and was handed over 
as a prisoner to the Emperor Henry VI. Philip and John 
at once combined to reap advantage from this disaster, and 
John, in return for a promise of French support in seizing 
the English Crown, agreed to do homage for his brother's Con- 
tinental dominions and make territorial cessions. At the same 
time, on the plea that Richard was dead, he demanded an oath of 
homage from the heads of the government in England. Both 
Normandy and England remained loyal to Richard, and this, 



88 Richard I. and John. 

together with the powerful influence of Queen Eleanor, 
frustrated John's treacherous schemes. In spite of the 
intrigues of Philip and John to prolong his captivity, the 
king was released by Henry VI. in 1194, on the promise 
of a ransom of 150,000 marks. After remaining in England 
two months, he left for Normandy to prosecute his quarrel with 
Philip. John, as a traitor, was stripped of his possessions, 
but was pardoned on making his submission. 

4. The Rule of Hubert Walter.— The government 
during the king's absence was entrusted to Hubert Walter, 
who was appointed justiciar. He was nephew and pupil of 
Glanvill, the great lawyer and minister of Henry II., and he 
had accompanied Richard to Palestine, where he had dis- 
tinguished himself by his zeal in relieving the needs of the 
poorer crusaders. On his return from the Holy Land, he was 
raised to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. He was an upright 
statesman, and of great ability, both as diplomatist and financier. 
For four years (n 94-1 198) his rule gave peace and good 
government to the country. One of his first measures was a 
series of instructions to the itinerant judges, known as the Iter 
of 1 1 94. By these the selection of the jury for the presentment 
of criminals was entrusted to four knights from each shire, and 
new officials, later on called Coroners, were ordered to be elected 
in the shire, to keep the Pleas of the Crown, a further step in 
carrying out the policy of weakening the sheriffs, which Henry 
II. had begun in 1170. In 1195 Hubert ordered an oath of 
allegiance to be taken by all over fifteen years of age, and this 
was to be enforced by knights assigned for the purpose ; to this 
measure is traced the origin of the later office of Justice of the 
Peace. In 1198 a great survey was ordered for the assessment 
of a Carucage, the Danegeld under a new name, and for this 
assessment juries were to be employed. All these measures 
were primarily directed towards furnishing funds to meet 
Richard's incessant demands for money, but incidentally they 
led to the development of the practice of representation and 
election, and thus paved the way for the constitutional growth 
of the following century. In 1198 the proof that England 



Richard I. and John. 89 

could not be arbitrarily governed was furnished by the opposi- 
tion of Hugh, the saintly Bishop of Lincoln, to Hubert's demand 
that the barons should furnish the king with three hundred 
knights, to serve for a year abroad. The opposition was 
successful, and shortly after Hubert, at the command of Pope 
Innocent III., resigned the justiciarship. He was succeeded 
by his subordinate, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. 

5. Richard and Philip Augustus. — The last six years 
of Richard's life were spent in the attempt to take vengeance 
on Philip, and to prevent the increasing consolidation of the 
French royal power, which was building up a national monarchy 
out of a number of feudal provinces. But the Angevin inherit- 
ance, great as it was in extent, had no centre to which its 
scattered territories could look, while the French kings had in 
Paris a centre for national aims and aspirations. Nevertheless, 
although Richard was fighting for a losing cause, he managed 
to hold his Own against his rival. The great castle, Chateau 
Gaillard, which he had built on the banks of the Seine, secured 
the approach to Normandy against attack from the direction of 
Paris. The war with Philip was, however, a war of sieges and 
truces, and was not marked by any great exploits. On the 
whole, Richard more than maintained his position; but his 
death in the midst of a petty expedition to capture some 
treasure-trove seized by his vassal, the lord of Chaluz, rendered 
inevitable the destruction of the Angevin inheritance. 

6. The Accession of John (1 199). — The death of Richard 
left two claimants to the Angevin dominions, Arthur, son of 
Geoffrey of Brittany, and John, the youngest son of Henry II. 
As Arthur was a boy of twelve, the choice of the barons fell on 
John. Archbishop Hubert was sent by John to England to 
negotiate for his election, and at a meeting at Northampton 
the barons, after receiving from Hubert the promises of good 
government, which John had authorised him to make, unani- 
mously accepted John as their king. At John's coronation, 
the archbishop solemnly declared that no man had any ante- 
cedent right to the succession, unless he had been chosen by 
the whole realm, and he added that John had been elected as 



90 Richard I. and John. 

the member of the royal family best fitted for the position. He 
adjured John not to accept the Crown unless he intended to 
keep his coronation oath. John took the accustomed oath, 
but it was noted that he did not communicate at his coronation, 
as was the custom. He had, indeed, abstained from the prac- 
tices of religion since manhood. 

On the Continent John's position was much less secure. 
Arthur was chosen by the barons of Anjou, Touraine, and 
Maine, and did homage to Philip for his possessions. The 
aged Queen Eleanor, however, conquered Anjou for John, and 
secured Aquitaine by herself doing homage to Philip. John, 
after re-appointing Fitz-Peter to be justiciar, and giving the 
chancellorship to Archbishop Hubert, hurried back to Nor- 
mandy to settle matters with the French king. After a brief 
campaign, Philip, threatened by Innocent III. with an interdict 
for infidelity to his wife, and seeing the danger of a coalition 
between John and the Emperor Otto IV., agreed to a peace, 
and recognised John as heir of Richard's dominions. John, 
with characteristic levity, repudiated his wife, Avice of Gloucester, 
and married Isabella of Angouleme, the destined bride of Hugh 
de la Marche, of the house of Lusignan. He thus roused the 
hostility of a powerful section of the barons, both in England 
and Aquitaine. 

7. The Loss of Normandy. — The growing unpopularity 
of John stimulated Philip's ambitious schemes. John had 
insulted the barons of Poitou by a summons to clear them- 
selves of a charge of treason. Instigated by the Lusignans, 
they appealed to Philip as John's overlord. Philip cited John 
to appear in Paris to answer the charges laid against him, and 
as John refused to come, the French peers condemned him by 
default, and declared his French possessions forfeited to the 
Crown. Philip at once undertook the execution of the sentence 
and invaded Normandy, while Arthur besieged his grandmother, 
the aged Queen Eleanor, in the castle of Mirabeau, on the 
borders of Poitou. John hurried to the relief of his mother, 
and captured Arthur, who was imprisoned at Rouen, and 
secretly murdered (1203). The horror which this crime 



Richard I. and John. 91 

evoked made John's cause hopeless. No attempt was made 
to bring him to trial for the murder, but the forfeiture already 
decreed was rapidly enforced. Town after town in Normandy 
surrendered to Philip, while John lay in idle despondency at 
Rouen. Philip laid siege to Chateau Gaillard, and John, after 
one futile attempt to relieve his last great stronghold, left 
Normandy to its fate. The castle fell in 1204, and with it 
the last hope of retaining the Continental possessions of the 
English Crown north of the Loire. Normandy, Maine, Anjou, 
and Touraine rapidly submitted to Philip, and renounced a 
king who could neither rule nor defend them. The greater 
part of Aquitaine still acknowledged John, not from any sense 
of loyalty, but because, differing in manners and language from 
northern France, it preferred the rule of a king too far off to 
control them to that of a strong king near at hand. 

8. John's Quarrel with the Church.— The death of 
Queen Eleanor in 1204 had deprived John of his wisest 
counsellor, and the death of Archbishop Hubert in 1205 now 
drew him into a contest with the Church. The right of electing 
the Archbishop of Canterbury belonged to the monks of 
Canterbury, but a claim to a concurrent voice was put forward 
by the Crown and by the bishops of the province of Canter- 
bury. To make sure of their rights some of the junior monks 
secretly chose their subprior Reginald, and sent him to Rome. 
John had wished to appoint John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, 
and the irregularity of the proceedings of the junior monks 
caused all parties interested in the election to appeal to Rome. 
John meanwhile procured the election of his nominee, and 
installed him in office. Innocent, after a trial lasting a year, 
confirmed the electoral rights of the monks, but set aside 
Reginald as improperly elected and John de Grey as chosen 
while the appeal was impending. As sixteen representatives 
of the monks, armed with full powers, were at the papal court, 
Innocent procured from them the election of Stephen Langton. 
John refused to accept Stephen, and expelled the monks of 
Canterbury, and the Pope, therefore, laid England under an 
interdict (1208). John treated this with scorn, and retorted 



9 2 Richard I. and John. 

by seizing the property of all ecclesiastics who obeyed it. In 
1209 John was personally excommunicated, and he thereupon 
outlawed the clergy and confiscated the estates of the bishops. 
With the money thus obtained he raised an army, and marching 
north he forced William the Lion to do homage to him, thus 
reversing the arrangement made by Richard in n 90. In 12 10 
he passed over to Ireland at the head of a large expedition. 
He compelled the Irish princes to acknowledge him, and he 
introduced order into the English province, or Pale, by dividing 
it into counties. He ordered that English laws should be 
observed, and appointed John de Grey as governor. In 1211 
he extorted the submission of Llewellyn of Wales. 

Hitherto the king had defied the Pope with apparent 
impunity, although from time to time he opened negotiations 
with Innocent and Langton. In 121 1 Innocent declared John 
deposed, and invited Philip to drive him from the throne. 
Philip collected an army at the mouth of the Seine, and John 
gathered a large fleet at Portsmouth to resist invasion. But 
he had alienated the loyalty of his subjects by his cruelty, 
immorality, and tyranny, and at the moment when to all 
appearances his position seemed secure, his courage gave way. 
In 1 2 13 he met the papal legate at Dover, agreed to accept 
Langton, to indemnify the Church, and to hold England as a 
fief of the Holy See, paying an annual tribute of 1000 marks. 
By his submission John extricated himself from the danger of 
a French invasion. Pandulph warned Philip not to proceed 
with his expedition. The French king angrily denounced the 
policy of the Pope, but he did not feel strong enough to dis- 
regard the prohibition, and therefore turned his forces against 
the Count of Flanders. John sent his fleet to attack the 
French fleet lying off the port of Damme, and by inflicting a 
crushing defeat on Philip, destroyed all projects of an invasion 
of England. 

9. John's Quarrel with the Barons.— During these 
thirteen years of the reign of John a national resistance had 
been slowly maturing. His coronation promises had been 
scornfully disregarded ; his rule had been both tyrannical and 



Richard I. and John. 93 

disastrous. The old taxes, such as scutage and feudal aids, had 
been largely increased, and the latest financial expedient, the tax 
on moveables, had been specially abused. All the feudal ex- 
tortions dear to William II. and Flambard had been renewed 
and intensified. John had alienated the barons by his loss of 
Normandy and Anjou, and by his vindictive conduct towards 
them. For eight years the religious life of the country had 
been paralysed by the contest with Innocent III. Crafty, 
suspicious, and immoral, John had outraged every national 
interest, whether spiritual or temporal. In 1199 tne country 
had been prosperous under a well ordered government ; in 
1 2 13 it lay at the mercy of a despotism worse than that of 
William II., because the reforms of Henry II. had made the 
Crown more powerful for evil as well as for good. 

Elated by his victory at Damme, John now proposed a new 
expedition to reconquer his lost dominions. The barons of the 
north flatly refused to serve, pleading that their tenures did not 
bind them to foreign service. John's attempt to punish the 
barons was frustrated by Langton, who threatened to excom- 
municate any of the king's followers who attacked them. 
Meanwhile, two important meetings of the Magnum Concilium 
had been held. The first assembled at St. Albans to assess 
the damages due to the Church, and it was attended not only 
by the barons but by the reeve and four men from the town- 
ships on the royal estates. The justiciar Fitz-Peter laid before 
the assembly John's recent promise of good government, and 
ordered that the laws of Henry I. should be observed. Three 
weeks later the second meeting took place at St. Paul's in 
London. Here Langton produced the Charter of Henry I., 
and it was at once seen to contain a suitable basis for a wider 
scheme of reform. Fitz-Peter died shortly after presenting the 
demands of the assembly to John, and Peter des Roches, the 
Poitevin Bishop of Winchester, was appointed to succeed him. 
Fitz-Peter had exercised a restraining influence on the king, but 
in Peter des Roches John had a pliant minister whom he could 
bend to his purposes. 

In 1 2 14 an army, led by the Earl of Salisbury and 



94 Richard. I and John. 

composed mainly of mercenaries, was sent to invade France 
from the east, and to act in conjunction with the forces of the 
Emperor Otto and the Count of Flanders. John meanwhile 
carried on a futile campaign in Poitou. The allied expedition 
was a disastrous failure, and this reacted most powerfully on 
English politics. The emperor, with his English and Flemish 
allies, encountered the French at Bouvines, near Tournay, and 
an overwhelming defeat shattered the coalition. John made 
a truce for five years with Philip and returned to England. 

During the king's absence the barons met at Bury St. 
Edmund's, and solemnly vowed to renounce their allegiance 
unless John granted them a Charter confirming their rights. 
Early in 12 15 the barons assembled in London and presented 
a list of their demands. John promised a definite answer at 
Easter, but he only used the interval to strengthen his position 
by fortifying his castles, and by trying to detach the bishops 
from the barons by guaranteeing to the Church the free 
exercise of the right of appointing bishops. Further to pro- 
tect himself he took the Cross, and sent to Innocent imploring 
help; the barons also appealed to the Pope as their feudal 
superior. The Pope replied by condemning the action of the 
barons, but promised to obtain from John all that they could 
reasonably ask. By this time, however, the hour for negotia- 
tions had passed. John angrily refused to consider the baronial 
demands, and the barons, having appointed Robert Fitz- Walter 
as leader of the " Army of God and Holy Church," marched 
on London, where they were warmly received by the citizens. 
John was rapidly deserted by the small number of barons who 
had remained with him, and powerless to resist, met the 
barons at Runny mede on June 15, and set his seal to the 
Great Charter. 

10. Magna Carta.— The Charter contains sixty-three 
clauses, which may be grouped as follows : — 

(a) The Church.— The liberties and rights of the Church 
are to be maintained unimpaired, and the right of election is 
expressly guaranteed. 

(b) Feudal Obligations.— Feudal payments, such as 



Richard I. and John. 95 

reliefs, are definitely fixed. Guardians are only to take 
reasonable profits without damage to the ward's estate. Heirs 
and heiresses are not to be given in marriage without the 
knowledge of their relations. No tenant is to be compelled 
to perform any service to which he is not bound by his tenure. 
These privileges which the barons secure for themselves are 
to be extended to their tenants. 

(c) Taxation. — No scutage or extraordinary aid is to be 
levied except " per commune consilium regni." To obtain this 
common council the king is to summon a gathering of all 
tenants-in-chief, the greater barons receiving each a special 
summons, and the lesser a general summons through the sheriff. 
Merchants are not to be subjected to arbitrary exactions, and 
purveyance is forbidden. 

(<f) Justice. — No freeman is to be imprisoned, outlawed, 
deprived of his property, or exiled, except by the lawful judg- 
ment of his equals and the law of the land. Justice is not to 
be sold, denied, or delayed. Common pleas, i.e. private suits, 
are to be heard at a fixed place. (This prevented the expense 
caused to private suitors by the law courts following the king 
or the justiciar.) The royal judges are to hold the assizes in 
the counties four times a year. Fines are to be proportionate 
to the offence and the property of the offender. 

(e) Miscellaneous. — A number of clauses deal with the 
rights of London and other towns, weights and measures, debts 
to the Jews, and the forest laws, etc. 

11. The Last Years of John. — The carrying out of the 
Charter was entrusted to twenty-four barons, empowered to 
make war on the king if he broke the Charter and refused 
redress. But John had every intention of shaking off control 
as soon as it was safe to do so. While he sent messengers to 
Flanders and France to hire mercenaries, he applied to the 
Pope to release him from concessions which he pleaded were 
injurious to Innocent as overlord of England. The Pope 
annulled the Charter as having been obtained in defiance of the 
Holy See, and ordered Langton to excommunicate all who 
disturbed the peace of the kingdom. Langton at once set out 



96 Richard I. and John. 

for Rome to confer with the Pope, but was suspended by 
Innocent from the exercise of his functions. Meanwhile, John 
was busy collecting troops and winning over those of the barons 
whose loyalty to the popular cause had been shaken. He was 
soon strong enough to order the estates of his enemies to be 
laid waste. In all directions flaming towns and villages marked 
the progress of the royal forces. In despair the barons offered 
the Crown to Louis, eldest son of Philip of France. The offer 
was accepted, and in the spring of 12 16 Louis landed at 
Sandwich and hastened to London. The counties near London 
submitted to Louis, and Lincolnshire and Yorkshire declared 
in his favour. But in spite of these successes John's position 
was still formidable. The barons failed in their attempt to 
take Dover and Windsor, while John led a successful expedition 
which reached as far north as Lincoln. As, however, the royal 
army was crossing the Wash the tide swept away the baggage 
and treasure waggons. This last blow threw John into a state 
of prostration, and worn out by fatigue and fever, and by a life 
of excess, he died at Newark (12 16). 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D 

Deposition of Longchamp 1 190. 

Richard in Palestine 1191, 1192. 

Richard ransomed 1194. 

Loss of Normandy 1204. 

Death of Hubert Walter 1205. 

The Interdict 1208. 

John's submission to Innocent III 1213. 

Magna Carta 1215. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HENRY III. (i 2 16-1272). 

I. The Minority. — The death of John soon rendered the 
position of Louis untenable. His summons to England had 
been dictated by the desperate straits in which the barons had 
found themselves, but they had not been long in seeing the 
risks they were incurring in inviting a foreign prince to rule 
over them. A strong section of the barons adhered to John's 
son Henry, a child of nine, who was forthwith crowned at 
Gloucester, and found powerful supporters in William Marshall, 
Earl of Pembroke, and in Gualo, the papal legate. The death 
of Innocent III. had made it possible to reopen the question 
of the Great Charter, and the oath of fealty taken to the new 
Pope, Honorius III., by the young king showed that the 
feudal relation, established in 12 13, between England and 
Rome remained intact. The loyal barons had therefore no 
difficulty in establishing Henry's claim, and under the wise 
guidance of William Marshall, whom they appointed " rector 
regis et regni," a policy of appeasement was begun. The 
Great Charter was reissued, omitting, however, the clauses 
which dealt with the grant of scutages and extraordinary aids, 
the forests, and the Jews ; but in doing so the Government drew 
attention to the omissions, and promised that everything should 
be amended when further counsel could be had. 

Throughout 1 2 1 7 the disaffected barons in increasing num- 
bers deserted the cause of Louis. The French prince was still 
secure in the south-eastern counties, but his adherents were 
defeated at Lincoln by the regent \ and, shortly after, a fleet 
bringing reinforcements from France was destroyed by Hubert 

97 H 



98 Henry III. 

de Burgh, off Dover. The royal forces now converged on 
London, and Louis was compelled to offer terms. By the 
Treaty of Lambeth, a general amnesty was proclaimed ; Louis 
was repaid the expenses in which he had been involved, and 
was released by Gualo from the excommunication which he had 
incurred by invading England, the fief of the Holy See. The 
peace was crowned by the second reissue of the Great Charter, 
together with the Charter of the Forests. The important 
taxation clause was, however, not reinserted. 

2. The Rule of Hubert de Burgh (1219-1227). — In 
1 2 19 the wise rule of William Marshall was brought to a close by 
his death. No regent was appointed to succeed him, but Hubert 
de Burgh the justiciar became supreme in the Government. 
Hubert was soon drawn into a struggle by his determination to 
weaken the barons, English and foreign, who during the recent 
troubles had obtained possession of the royal castles. In this 
he was hampered by the opposition of Peter des Roches, the 
personal guardian of the young king, who was the secret leader 
of the foreign party. Hubert was, however, successful. The 
Earl of Aumale was compelled to yield, and Falkes de Breaute, 
a Norman adventurer of the worst type, who had won the 
favour of John, was summarily crushed. For the time being 
the foreign party was reduced to insignificance, and Peter des 
Roches, recognising this, joined the Crusade. 

In 1227 Henry declared himself of age, but Hubert con- 
tinued in office till 1232. Hubert had throughout opposed all 
schemes ^ aggression against France as tending to exhaust 
England and throw the country back into foreign entanglements, 
from which the loss of Normandy had released her to a great 
extent. The failure of an expedition against France was 
ascribed to him, and the return of his enemy Peter des Roches 
was followed by his dismissal. He was tried on a long series 
of charges, and condemned to forfeiture and imprisonment. 

3. Rule of Peter des Roches (i2 3 2-,2 3 4).-Huberfs 
va now contro led both king and kingdom, and the usual 

results of the rule of a foreigner followed. English officials 
were displaced in favour of Bretons and Poitevins, and the 



Henry III. gg 

good work of William Marshall and Hubert de Burgh was in 
danger of being undone. In 1233 the English barons, led by 
Richard Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, threatened Henry with 
deposition if his foreign courtiers were not dismissed. Peter 
denounced Richard as a traitor, and a short civil war followed. 
Henry was defeated at Monmouth, and Richard, in league with 
Llewellyn of Wales, drove the king from Gloucester. The 
bishops had throughout sided with the barons, and the new 
archbishop, Edmund Rich, threatened Henry with excommuni- 
cation if he did not get rid of his evil advisers. Peter des 
Roches was dismissed, but before he fell Richard Marshall had 
been lured over to Ireland to defend the estates of his house, 
and had been treacherously killed. 

4. Henry's Personal Rule. — Twenty-four years of mis- 
government now followed. Properly qualified ministers were 
not appointed, and the government was carried on by clerks, 
subservient to the royal will. In 1236 Henry married Eleanor 
of Provence, and the country was placed at the mercy of foreign 
favourites, the relations of the king's mother and wife. The 
barons were without a strong leader, for Simon de Montfort, 
who now comes to the front, had married Henry's sister 
Eleanor, the widow of William Marshall, and was looked on 
by the English barons as a foreign adventurer bound to the 
royal interests. But in 1239 Henry quarrelled with de Montfort, 
and the latter left England. 

Henry's foreign policy was wholly unsuccessful, and his 
attempts to regain his lost possessions in France or^y increased 
his burden of indebtedness. In 1242 he led an expedition to 
recover Poitou which failed ignominiously and ended in his 
surrender of all claims to the country. In 1248 de Montfort 
was appointed to govern Gascony, but he found himself con- 
stantly thwarted by Henry's interference, and after ruling for 
eight years retired to the estates of his earldom of Leicester. 
In 1254 Henry crossed to Gascony to put down the disturbances, 
but returned a year later more hopelessly in debt than ever. 

5. Papal Exactions. — Henry III. owed his throne to 
papal support, and the Popes used their authority over him 



ioo Henry III. 

unsparingly. The new feudal relation to the Holy See, created 
by John's submission, gave the papacy the right to levy taxes 
on the country, and the result was a series of heavy exactions 
from the laity and clergy, which strained the loyalty of 
England. In the long struggle with the Emperor Frederick II., 
the papacy was forced to have recourse to most dangerous 
expedients for raising money, and these caused bitter com- 
plaints to be brought against the Pope. In 1237 Cardinal 
Otto was sent as legate to England, to extort money from the 
clergy, and to suspend the right of nominating to livings which 
was enjoyed by private patrons. In 1240 a demand was 
presented to Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, that 
until provision had been made for three hundred Italian clerks, 
no preferment should be given to Englishmen. The saintly 
archbishop was broken-hearted by the struggle to defend his 
people from the exactions of the legate, and retired to 
Pontigny, where he died a few months later. Cardinal Otto 
left England in 1241, carrying with him enormous sums of 
money. Still the needs of the papacy continued, and a new 
legate, Master Martin, arrived in 1244 to raise money from 
the English Church. The demands were met by strong 
opposition, and in 1245, at tne Great Council of Lyons, 
a letter was sent to Innocent IV., setting forth the grievous 
injuries inflicted on the country by these perpetual demands 
for money, and by the intrusion of alien clergy into English 
benefices. Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, while insisting 
on his loyalty to the Holy See, refused to confer a canonry 
on the Pope's nominee, whom he considered unfit. " It is 
well known," he wrote, " that I am ready to obey apostolical 
commands with filial affection, and all devotion and reverence, 
but to those things which are opposed to apostolic commands, 
I, in my zeal for the honour of my parent, am also opposed." 

6. The Sicilian Crown.— Henry III. had kept out of 
the struggle between the papacy and the empire until after the 
death of his brother-in-law, the Emperor Frederick II. (1250). 
But in 1254 he accepted from Pope Innocent IV. the kingdom 
of Sicily and Naples for his second son Edmund. The 



Henry III. 101 

country had been held by Frederick II. as a fief of the Holy 
See, and his rights had been declared forfeited on account 
of his opposition to the Pope. On the emperor's death, his 
illegitimate son Manfred had ruled Sicily, and he refused to 
recognise the claim of Edmund. Pope Alexander IV., who 
had succeeded Innocent IV., carried on the struggle on behalf 
of Edmund, and at the expense of Henry, his father. In 1257 
a papal envoy came to England, and demanded 135,000 marks 
in repayment of the costs incurred by the Pope. 

7. The Provisions of Oxford (1258). — The disastrous 
consequences of twenty-four years of personal rule now pro- 
duced the great crisis of the reign. The barons had at last found 
a leader in Simon de Montfort. Henry met the barons in 
Westminster, and explained the results of his Sicilian policy. 
His demand for an aid was refused, and he had to place 
himself unreservedly in the hands of the barons. Shortly 
after, the " Mad Parliament," as the king's partisans termed 
it, reassembled at Oxford, where the barons appeared in 
arms. A committee of tw r enty-four barons, half from the 
royal side, and half from the barons, had been already 
nominated to draw up reforms. Part of their scheme, known 
as the Provisions of Oxford, was the appointment of a per- 
manent council of fifteen, to control the king's government, 
and to prevent him from breaking the charters. The great 
offices of State were filled up with the approval of the council. 
It was also provided that the fifteen councillors were to meet 
three times a year a body of twelve chosen by the barons, 
and the Parliament thus composed was to make laws and 
settle taxes. In this last proviso the oligarchical tendencies 
of the barons are made clear. The power which they had 
wrested from Henry, was to be wielded by a small circle of 
great barons ; while the lesser tenants-in-chief were deprived 
of their customary right to attend the Magnum Concilium. 

8. The Rule of the Barons. — The Government thus 
set up lasted till 1263, and during this period certain reforms 
were carried out. The aliens were expelled from the country, 
and peace was made with Wales, Scotland, and France. Henry 



102 Henry IIL 

renounced his claims on Normandy, and did homage for 
Gascony. At home the mutual jealousies of the barons pre- 
vented the Government working smoothly. Earl Simon was 
opposed by Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, the 
champion of the caste interests of the barons. In 1259 the 
lesser tenants-in-chief, who were now excluded from Parlia- 
ment, complained that the barons were not carrying out the 
necessary reforms. The Government, therefore, issued the 
Provisions of Westminster, securing the lesser tenants from 
the oppression of their feudal lords. This was a victory for 
the party of liberal reform which de Montfort represented. 

Henry himself, in the mean time, struggled to shake off 
a form of government which reduced his power to a shadow. 
In 1 261 he repudiated his adhesion to the Provisions, and the 
Pope released him from his oath. He thus for the moment 
regained his hold on the Government. In 1262 Richard, Earl 
of Gloucester, died, and his heir, Gilbert, took the side of 
de Montfort. In 1263 de Montfort took up arms, and 
marched on London. Neither side was, however, for the 
moment, anxious to push matters to extremes, and it was 
therefore agreed to accept the arbitration of Louis IX. In 
1264 Louis, by his award, the Mise of Amiens, annulled the 
Provisions of Oxford and Westminster as derogatory to the 
Crown. He expressly affirmed the king's right to appoint 
his ministers, and to employ aliens, but he added, that all 
liberties and privileges secured to the nation by charter or 
custom remained intact, and that on both sides attempts at 
reprisals and vengeance should be dropped. 

9. The Rule of de Montfort.— The decision of Louis IX. 
was an attempt to restore matters to the position they were 
in before the barons wrested the power from Henry, and the 
French king no doubt hoped that Henry, profiting by the 
lesson he had learnt, would rule with greater wisdom. But 
de Montfort felt himself strong enough to repudiate the 
humiliating decision, and in spite of the fact that he was a 
party to the arbitration, refused to be bound by the verdict. 
I he barons and the citizens of London flocked to his standard, 



Henry III. 103 

and Henry was defeated and captured at the battle of Lewes. 
By the Mise of Lewes the king was forced to re-confirm the 
Provisions, and to surrender his son Edward, and his nephew 
Henry, as hostages. It was agreed that the government should 
be carried on by nine councillors, chosen by three electors, 
of whom de Montfort was one. The councillors were to 
nominate ministers and officers of State. 

In June, 1264, this scheme was sanctioned by a Parliament 
which was attended not only by barons and bishops but by 
four knights froni each shire. Early in 1265 the famous 
Parliament was summoned, which for the first time contained 
representatives of both shires and boroughs. It is for this 
reason that de Montfort has been called the " founder of the 
House of Commons," a title, however, to which he is not 
wholly entitled. The representative principle as applied to 
Parliament was not new. In 1254 knights elected in the shire 
courts had been summoned to a Parliament at Westminster, 
and the same expedient had been adopted by both barons 
and Henry in 1261. Further, the Parliament of 1265 was not 
a national one, for it was only attended by those barons and 
bishops and by representatives of those districts in sympathy 
with de Montfort. Still it was de Montfort's great merit, 
that he abandoned the narrow policy of 1258, and at a great 
crisis, foreigner though he was, struck the true line along which 
the constitution must develop. 

The new constitution was short-lived. De Montfort soon 
offended Gilbert de Clare, and the Gloucester faction com- 
bined with the Mortimers against the Government. Edward 
escaped from confinement, and joined the hostile coalition. 
Taking Henry with him, de Montfort marched west to attack 
the Mortimers in South Wales, while his son Simon occupied 
Kenilworth. Here the young Simon was attacked and routed 
by Edward, and de Montfort himself, advancing to Evesham, 
where he expected to be joined by his son, encountered the 
victorious army of the young prince. The great earl fell, 
fighting to the last. 

10. The Triumph of Constitutional Principles. — 



104 Henry III. 

For the moment it seemed that the cause, for which de 
Montfort had contended, was irretrievably lost. Some of his 
adherents still held out at Kenilvvorth, and Edward meditated 
a policy of stern vengeance. But more moderate views pre- 
vailed, and by the Dictum de Kenil worth (1266) peace was 
arranged. The absolute power of the king and the nullity of 
de Montfort's acts were proclaimed, but the government was 
carried on wisely, and by the Parliament of Marlborough in 
1267 many of the reforms of the "Mad Parliament" were 
permanently accepted. The country rapidly settled down, and 
with peace an era of prosperity set in. In 1270 Edward and 
many of the great barons joined the Crusade, and the prince 
was still abroad when Henry died, in 1272. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Treaty of Lambeth • . . 1217. 

Defeat of de Breaute 1224. 

Fall of Hubert de Burgh 1232. 

Mad Parliament 1288. 

Mise of Amiens 1264. 

Parliaments of de Montfort .... 1264, 1265. 

Battle of Evesham ......... 1265. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

EDWARD I. (1272-1307). 

i. Edward's Accession. — So complete was the tranquil- 
lity of the country during the last years of Henry III. that 
Edward, though absent on the Crusade, was at once proclaimed 
king, and the government was carried on firmly by the three 
regents, the Archbishop of York, Roger Mortimer, and Robert 
Burnell, the future chancellor. Edward had left Palestine 
before his father's death, and received the news at Capua. 
After visiting his friend Pope Gregory X., he moved to Paris, 
where he did homage to the French king for his Continental 
possessions, and then organised the Government in Gascony. 
In the summer of 1274 he landed at Dover. 

2. The Conquest of Wales. — The political condition 
of Wales was at this time not unlike that of Ireland. The 
southern part of the country was in the hands of the Lords 
Marchers, the great families of Mortimer, Bohun, Marshall, 
and Clare, who exercised almost sovereign jurisdiction as 
delegates of the English king ; while in the north, outside the 
sphere of the Lords Marchers, the Welsh chieftains maintained 
a practical independence under their prince. Though nomi- 
nally vassals of the English Crown, the Welsh princes constantly 
interfered in English politics to embarrass the Government. At 
his accession, Edward found North Wales ruled by Llewellyn 
ap Griffith, who had sided with de Montfort, and had been 
rewarded by the recognition of his independence. He had 
subsequently done homage to Henry III., but a demand for its 
renewal in 1273 was refused. In 1277 Edward detained Eleanor, 
Llewellyn's affianced bride, the daughter of de Montfort, and 

105 



106 Edward I. 

followed this up by an attack on Wales. Llewellyn, blockaded 
in the north, was forced to submit, and surrendered all his 
lands, except the district round Snowdon. He did homage, 
and was allowed to marry Eleanor de Montfort. In 1282 
Llewellyn and his brother David, who had hitherto supported 
Edward, rose in rebellion. Edward marched into North 
Wales, and, after a brave resistance, the rebellion was put 
down. Llewellyn was killed, and David, who had been cap- 
tured, was tried at Shrewsbury and condemned to a cruel 
death. The reorganisation of Wales followed. By the Statute 
of Wales, 1284, the Government was remodelled on the 
English system. The country was divided into shires, and 
English law was introduced. A number of fortresses were 
built to keep the country in submission. The title of Prince 
of Wales was conferred by the king on his infant son Edward, 
who had been born at Carnarvon. 

3. The Scottish Succession Question. — The relation 
of the kings of Scotland to the kings of England is one which 
has a perplexing history. Scotland, in the first place, did not 
contain a homogeneous nation, for it was divided into the 
Lowlands, where the people were mainly of English blood, 
and the Highlands, where the Celtic stock predominated. 
Many of the Scottish nobles were of Norman descent, and 
held lands in both countries. Moreover, two provinces of 
southern Scotland, Lothian and Scottish Cumberland, had 
been granted by Anglo-Saxon kings to the kings of Scotland. 
Since the Norman conquest the claim of the English Crown to 
overlordship had been persistently asserted, and recognition 
had been obtained by William I. and William II. The claim 
had been expressly conceded by William the Lion at the 
Treaty of Falaise, but Richard I. had released William for a 
money payment. Lastly, the question was complicated by the 
fact that the Scottish kings held estates in England, and it was 
not clear whether they did homage to the English king as 
kings of Scotland or as English nobles. Edward I. was 
anxious to settle the question finally by a marriage between 
his son Edward and Margaret the Maid of Norway, who was 



Edward I. 107 

the heiress of her grandfather, Alexandra III., but the death of 
the young queen frustrated his plans. 

A large number of claimants to the Scottish Crown now 
came forward, but the decision clearly lay between the de- 
scendants of David, Earl of Huntingdon, brother of William 
the Lion. These were (1) John Balliol, grandson of Margaret, 
the eldest daughter of David; (2) Robert Bruce, son of 
Isabella, the second daughter; (3) John Hastings, grandson 
of Ada, the youngest daughter. At Norham the Scottish 
nobles submitted the case to Edward, and all three claimants 
formally recognised him as overlord of Scotland. A court of 
arbitration was set up, and in 1292, after a careful hearing, 
Edward decided in favour of Balliol, who at once did homage. 

Balliol soon found that Edward regarded his overlordship as 
a substantial authority to which aggrieved suitors in Scotland 
could appeal, in the same way as the Poitevins had appealed 
against John to Philip Augustus. Balliol was therefore sum- 
moned to defend a decision of the Scottish courts, a summons 
which he answered in person, but only to deny Edward's 
appellate jurisdiction. The Scots now turned for help to 
France. An informal warfare had been raging for some time 
between French sailors on the one hand, and English and 
Gascons on the other; and in 1293 this culminated in a 
pitched battle, in which the French were defeated with great 
loss of life. Philip IV., surnamed "the Fair," summoned 
Edward to Paris to answer as Duke of Aquitaine for the 
conduct of his Gascon subjects, and on Edward refusing to 
appear, his duchy was declared forfeited. In 1294, to avoid a 
war, Edward agreed to a temporary surrender of his Gascon 
fortresses as a sign of submission, but Philip refused to return 
them at the end of the six weeks as had been stipulated, and 
Edward was compelled to have recourse to arms. Philip at 
once concluded an alliance with Scotland. 

4. The Model Parliament (1295). — At this grave crisis 
in his fortunes, Edward appealed to the support of the whole 
nation, and summoned a Parliament more completely repre- 
sentative than any called together hitherto. The development 



108 Edward I. 

of the representative system in the thirteenth century had been 
marked by checks as well as by progress, for it had to compete 
with the tendency, which showed itself so clearly in 1258, to 
narrow the Magnum Concilium from a gathering of greater and 
lesser tenants-in- chief down to a small circle of great barons 
and officials. The victory of the representative principle in the 
two Parliaments of de'Montfort, in 1264 and 1265, temporarily 
prejudiced its success, for we have no record of the presence of 
representatives in Parliament from 1265 to 1272. Under Edward 
I., however, representatives of shires and boroughs had been 
summoned with some frequency, although many of his great 
statutes were passed in assemblies attended by the magnates 
only. But in 1295 the final step was taken which brought the 
Estate of the Commons into political action side by side with 
the barons and clergy. The earls, barons, bishops, and abbots 
received, as was customary, a special writ of summons, and the 
archbishops and bishops were directed to bring to Parliament 
representatives of the cathedral chapters and of the diocesan 
clergy. Lastly, the sheriffs were ordered to send two knights, 
elected by the county courts, and two citizens and burgesses 
from each city or borough. The three orders each voted 
separately a large grant of money to the king. 

5. The First Invasion of Scotland (1296). — As soon as 
Edward heard of the Franco-Scottish alliance, he demanded 
that the Scottish border fortresses should be placed in his 
hands, and on this being refused, invaded Scotland. Balliol 
formally renounced his allegiance, but the capture of Berwick 
by Edward was followed by a decisive victory gained by the 
English under John de Warrenne, Earl of Surrey, at Dunbar. 
Edinburgh and the other chief towns surrendered, and Balliol 
submitted. He was allowed to retire to France, and Edward 
proclaimed himself King of Scotland. After receiving the 
homage of the Scottish nobles, he left Scotland under the 
regency of Earl Warrenne and Sir Hugh Cressingham. 

6. The Confirmation of the Charters (1296-1297).— 
Edward's attack on Scotland was part of a wider scheme of 
attack on France, which comprised an invasion from both 




Walker & Cockerell sc. 



I IO 



Edward I, 



Flanders and Gascony. To carry out his plan, Edward was 
forced to have recourse to very heavy taxation levied on the 
clergy and merchants and royal towns. When he again 
summoned Parliament in 1296, his demands met with a 
strenuous resistance. The lead was taken by the clergy, 
who, under Archbishop Winchelsey, refused to grant any 
taxes, pleading that the Bull Clericis Laicos just issued by 
Boniface VIII., prohibited the clergy from paying taxes to 
the State from the revenues of the Church. The Bull was 
not specially aimed at Edward, for it applied to all Christian 
countries, and was primarily intended to stop the wars, the 
funds for which were largely obtained from the Church. 
Thus, in England, about 1291, Edward, under the pretence 
of undertaking a Crusade, had obtained from the clergy, with 
the sanction of Nicholas IV., a tax of one-tenth of their 
revenues, and in 1294 he demanded one half. The papal 
authority on which Edward had relied in 1291, was now 
invoked against him by the clergy. Edward angrily retorted 
by placing the clergy outside the protection of the law 
courts. 

The quarrel rapidly widened. In 1297 the barons, led 
by the Constable Bohun, Earl of Hereford, and Bigod the 
Marshall, Earl of Norfolk, refused to join an expedition to 
Gascony, while Edward commanded in Flanders. They 
pleaded that they were only bound to follow the king in 
person, and neither threats nor persuasion could induce them 
to recede from a position in which they had the support of 
the majority of the barons. Edward therefore dismissed the 
two earls from their offices, seized the wool of the merchants, 
ordered the counties to furnish supplies of food, and obtained 
from an assembly of his own adherents a grant of taxes. 
He then reconciled himself to Archbishop Winchelsey, who 
promised that if the king would confirm the Charters, he would 
arrange a compromise with the clergy which would enable 
them to make a voluntary grant. This had been expressly 
allowed by Boniface in a second bull, explaining the Bull 
Clericis Laicos. Edward agreed and proceeded to make 



Edward I. 1 1 1 

preparation to start for Flanders. Before leaving, he received 
from the barons and clergy a demand that certain new articles 
should be added to the Great Charter, and to avoid the humilia-' 
tion of a personal submission, he left the negotiations to be 
finished by the Regent Prince Edward. The young prince 
had no choice but to yield, for the Scots were in revolt, and 
the barons, under Bigod and Bohun, forbade the exchequer 
officers to collect the illegal taxes. In October, 1297, the 
Government therefore issued the Confirmatio Cartarum. 

The confirmation of the Charters is a document of the 
greatest constitutional importance ; for, in confirming, it ampli- 
fied the Great Charter itself. As we have seen, the clause 
dealing with the grant of scutages and extraordinary aids 
which had been inserted in Magna Carta, in 12 15, was omitted 
in the reissue of 12 16, and had never been restored. To 
remedy this omission a clause was now added by which the 
king pledged himself and his heirs not to levy " any such aids, 
mises, or prises, but by the common assent of the realm and 
for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and 
prises due and accustomed." This clause did not cover every 
form of taxation, and therefore did not settle once for all the 
relative rights of the Crown and Parliament. But it went far 
beyond the control over feudal taxes conceded in 12 15, and 
what is of even greater importance, its guarantee of being 
observed did not depend on a feudal gathering of barons, but 
on that national representative Parliament which Edward himself 
had done so much to create. 

7. The Second Invasion of Scotland (1298). — Edward's 
expedition against France did not produce any military results 
of importance. Edward and Philip therefore agreed to accept 
the arbitration of Boniface VIII., acting not as Pope, but as a 
judge voluntarily accepted by both parties. A truce for two 
years was concluded which ripened subsequently into a peace. 
The Gascon possessions of the English Crown were restored. 

The truce with France left Edward free to deal with 
Scotland, where the political situation was most threatening. 
The government of the regency had been oppressive, and the 



1 12 Edward I. 

treatment of Scotland as a conquered country soon roused the 
spirit of resistance. In 1297 William Wallace, a small land- 
owner in the western Lowlands, became the centre of the in- 
surrection, and in the summer of 1297 John de Warrenne 
the regent was disgracefully routed by Wallace at Cambus- 
kenneth, near Stirling. The Scots followed up the victory 
by an invasion of England, laying waste Northumberland and 
Cumberland. Edward's presence soon restored the balance 
in favour of England. At the head of a huge army, Edward 
invaded Scotland, and penetrated as far as the Forth. But 
provisions became scarce, and he therefore determined to fall 
back on Edinburgh. Before, however, he reached the capital, 
he learnt that Wallace was encamped at Falkirk, with the in- 
tention of harassing his retreat. Edward therefore retraced 
his steps to Linlithgow Moor, and on the following day 
encountered Wallace's army. The Scottish force consisted 
mainly of foot-soldiers armed with pikes, and Wallace, to 
protect them against the English cavalry, had taken up a 
position behind a morass. The Scottish cavalry fled at the 
first onset, but the English knights could not break the serried 
ranks of the Scottish spearmen. Edward, therefore, ordered 
his bowmen to break up the masses of the enemy by pouring 
a ceaseless flight of arrows into them. His cavalry dashed in 
on the enemy wherever a gap was made, and the battle was 
won. Wallace fled, and for a time took refuge in France. 

Scotland still remained unconquered, and the Scottish 
barons, who had never trusted Wallace, now chose Robert 
Bruce, grandson of the claimant, John Comyn, the nephew 
and heir of John Balliol, and the Bishop of St. Andrews, as 
regents. By avoiding pitched battles, the partisans of Scottish 
independence maintained their hold on the country north of 
the Forth. Edward, moreover, was still hampered by his 
quarrel with Philip. In 1299 Boniface VIII., whose pro- 
tection had been invoked by the Scottish nobles on the ground 
that Scotland was a fief of the Holy See, summoned Edward 
to plead his rights at Rome. Edward, who was carrying on 
a campaign in Scotland, summoned a Parliament to Lincoln, 



Edward I. 113 

and laid the papal letter before it (1301). The barons and 
commons replied to Boniface, denying that Scotland belonged 
to the Holy See, and insisted that the kings of England " have 
never pleaded, or been bound to plead, respecting their rights 
in the kingdom of Scotland, or any other of their temporal 
rights before any judge secular or ecclesiastical." The bishops 
and clergy, it should be added, abstained from joining in this 
reply to the Pope. Boniface, however, was now engaged in a 
struggle with Philip IV. of France, and could not afford to make 
an enemy of Edward. The question, therefore, dropped, and 
the peace between England and France in 1303 gave Edward 
another opportunity to conquer Scotland. 

8. The Third Invasion of Scotland (1303). — Unsup- 
ported by France and the Pope the Scots could only offer a 
feeble resistance. Edward traversed the whole country from 
south to north, and everywhere received the submission of 
the Scottish nobles, including that of the Regent Comyn. The 
heroic Wallace, who refused to accept the pardon offered by 
Edward, was betrayed to the English, and was taken to 
London, where he was tried and executed as a traitor (1305). 
Edward now drew up a new constitution for Scotland. The 
country was divided into sheriffdoms, and a certain number of 
representatives were to be summoned to the English Parlia- 
ment. Edward's schemes for the union of the countries were 
frustrated by the advent of a new pretender, Robert Bruce, 
grandson of the Bruce who had been the rival of John Balliol 
in 1290. In 1306 he murdered his rival John Comyn for 
refusing to help him, and gathering a small force he was 
crowned at Scone. The rising did not at first appear for- 
midable, but Bruce, though not successful in the open field, 
managed to elude his pursuers, and kept alive the spirit of 
national resistance. In 1307 Edward roused himself once 
more to march into Scotland, but died at Burgh-by-Sands 
near Carlisle. 

9. Edward I. as Legislator. — The military achieve- 
ments of Edward I. were but a part, and certainly not the 
most important part, of the work which has gained for him 

1 



H4 Edward I. 

renown as the greatest of English kings. In the sphere of 
law-making and of administrative and judicial reforms, his |i 
reign marks a great epoch. His genius was shown not in 
creating new machinery of government, but in taking that 
which already existed, and in rendering every part suitable for 
its purpose. His denning and organising policy made itself I 
felt in every department of the national life. In 1295 he had 
taken the final step towards the completion of Parliament. 
He had defined the sphere of the ecclesiastical courts by 
his writ " Circumspecte Agatis" (1285), and during his reign 
the central courts of justice took their permanent forms as the 
courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer. By 
the writs of Distraint of Knighthood, compelling all landowners 
with land worth ^20 a year to take up the burden of knight- 
hood, he strengthened the feudal force, while by the Statute of 
Winchester (1285) ne reorganised the national fyrd. 

The Statute De Religiosis, or Statute of Mortmain (1279), 
forbade the acquisition of land by religious bodies in such 
a way that the Crown and lords lost such sources of feudal 
income as reliefs, wardships, and escheats. The second Statute 
of Westminster (1285) established definitely the practice of 
entail, and the Statute Quia Emptores (1290) forbade the 
practice of subinfeudation. In future, if a vassal alienated his 
land the new tenant was to hold the land of the original lord 
of the whole estate, and not of the subordinate grantor. The 
effect of this statute was to increase the number of tenants who 
held land directly of the king and great lords. In these and 
many other directions Edward's policy was one of the highest 
statesmanship, for it embodied the national spirit in its love 
of precedent and of conservative development. Some of 
Edward's political acts, such as his attack on Scotland and 
his treatment of Wallace, are hard to defend, and seem to 
belie the motto he adopted— Pactum Serva. But there can be 
no doubt as to the greatness of his services to England, 
whether as ruler and politician, or as setting a high example 
of integrity of life and character. 



Edward I. 115 

CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Conquest of Wales 1282. 

Settlement of the Scottish Succession . . . 1292. 

Model Parliament 1295. 

Battle of Dunbar 1296. 

Confirmation of the Charters 1297. 

Battle of Falkirk 1298. 

Third invasion of Scotland I 303« 

Rebellion of Robert Bruce 1306. 



THE LATER PLANTAGENETS. 

John, = Isabella of Angouleme. 
1199-1216. I 



Henry III. 
1216-1272. 



Eleanor of 
Provence. 



Joan. 



I 
Eleanor. 



Richard, 
King of the Romans. 



Edward I., = Eleanor 
1272-1307. I ofCastille. 



I 
Margaret 



Edward II., 
1307-1327- 



Isabella, 
of France. 



Edward III., 
I327-I377- 

Edward, 

the Black Prince, 

d. 1376. 

Richard II., 

U77-I399. 



I 

Edmund, 

Earl of Lancaster. 

I 

Thomas, 

Earl of Lancaster 

(executed 1322). 



CHAPTER XV. 

EDWARD II. (1307-132 7). 

i. The Struggle between Piers Gaveston and the 
Barons (1307-13 10). — The death of Edward I. was fol- 
lowed by a reversal of his policy. Edward II. was totally 
unlike his father. Weak, dissipated, and careless of the busi- 
ness and interests of the State, he gave himself over to the 
guidance of his favourite Piers Gaveston. The death of his 
mother, Queen Eleanor (1290), when he was six years old 
had deprived Edward of the wise control so necessary for his 
wayward and indolent disposition. He had been brought up 
in the closest intimacy with Piers Gaveston, the son of a 
Gascon knight, and the young Gaveston had gained a com- 
plete ascendancy over him. Too late Edward I. had realised 
this, and had banished Gaveston from the Court ; but with the 
accession of Edward II. the favourite was at once recalled 
and raised to the earldom of Cornwall. In other directions 
also, Edward II. disregarded his father's wishes. Edward I. 
expressly enjoined his son to carry through the war in Scotland, 
but Edward II. contented himself with a short expedition 
into Scotland, and leaving Aymer de Valence as Governor of 
Scotland, hurried south to prepare for his coronation and 
marriage. He crossed over to France and was married to 
Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. During his absence Gaveston 
was appointed regent, and the jealousy of the great barons 
was further inflamed by the precedence accorded to the 
favourite at the royal coronation. 

In 1308 the opposition to Gaveston reached a climax. 
The leader of the barons was the king's first cousin Thomas, 

117 



1 1 8 Edward II. 

son of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, the younger brother of 
Edward I. Earl Thomas held the earldom of Leicester and 
Derby, and had married the future heiress of the Earl of 
Lincoln and Salisbury. He was a man of violent passions 
and great ambitions, and his pride was wounded by the 
favours showered upon Gaveston, who had offended him and 
the other great barons by an arrogant demeanour and by petty 
sarcasms at their expense. When, therefore, Edward's first 
Parliament met in 1308, the barons demanded Gaveston's 
dismissal, and the king had to yield. Gaveston was banished, 
but was made Governor of Ireland. Edward, however, soon 
soothed the barons by concessions, and in 1309 Gaveston was 
recalled. Almost immediately the quarrel was renewed, and 
this time the barons determined to get securities for the 
carrying out of their wishes. 

2. The Lords Ordainers (1310-1312). — In 1310 Par- 
liament was summoned, but only barons and prelates were 
present. Following the bad precedent of the Provisions 
of Oxford, 1258, it was decided to transfer the govern- 
ment from the king to a body specially chosen by the 
baronage. Twenty-one Ordainers were appointed to draw 
up Ordinances for the welfare of Church and realm. The 
Ordainers were to remain in office till the following year. 
In 131 1 the ordainers issued forty-one Ordinances, in which 
important constitutional claims were made. Gaveston was to 
be perpetually banished. The great officers of State were to 
be appointed with the advice and consent of the barons ; the 
king was not to make war or leave the kingdom without their 
consent ; Parliament was to be summoned at least once a year. 
Whatever the merit of these claims, it is clear that, as in 1258, 
they were made not on behalf of the whole nation, but of a 
single class. 

While the Ordainers were at work, Edward had been in the 
north with Gaveston, but after an abject supplication to the 
barons to spare his " brother Piers " he agreed to the Ordinances. 
In 131 2, however, he defied the barons by recalling Gaveston. 
The Earls of Lancaster, Pembroke, Warwick, and Hereford 



Edward II. 119 

thereupon attacked Gaveston, and captured him at Scarborough. 
In defiance of the promise of his captors that he should have a 
fair trial in Parliament, he was beheaded in the presence of 
Lancaster at Blacklow Hill. Edward, in spite of his humilia- 
tion and sorrow, felt himself too weak to avenge this cruel 
outrage. A reconciliation was effected between the king and 
the barons, and for the moment he was free to deal with affairs 
in Scotland. 

3. The Battle of Bannockburn (13 14). — Robert Bruce 
had taken advantage of the disturbed state of English politics 
to push his fortunes. Fortress after fortress surrendered, and 
in 13 14 the fall of Stirling, the last English stronghold, was 
inevitable unless immediately relieved. Edward had gathered 
a force, but Lancaster and his confederates refused to obey the 
summons, on the ground that Parliament, in accordance with 
the Ordinances, had not sanctioned the war. The march of 
the English army was thus delayed, and it did not come within 
sight of Stirling till the day on which the garrison had agreed 
to surrender unless help came. Here Edward was confronted 
by a Scottish army under Bruce, entrenched behind the stream 
called the Bannockburn, and blocking the road to Stirling. In 
the battle which followed the English were badly led by their 
king. No advantage was taken of the English superiority in 
archers, as had been done at Falkirk, but they were thrown 
forward unsupported, and were ridden down by the Scottish 
cavalry. The advance of the English cavalry was broken up 
by their becoming entangled in the morass and in the hidden 
pits with which Bruce had protected his flanks, and the English 
knights failed to pierce the close formation of the Scottish 
pikemen. The appearance of a crowd of camp-followers on 
the neighbouring hill spread a panic through the English, who 
mistook them for Scottish reinforcements. The English army 
turned and fled, and Edward, outstripping his soldiers, did not 
stop in his headlong flight till he reached Dunbar. Stirling 
surrendered, and the English were swept out of Scotland. 
Bruce was now so strong that he could aim at extending the 
influence of his family. In 1315 his brother Edward Bruce led 



120 Edward II. 

an army into Ireland, and was crowned king. A long struggle 
followed, which weakened the English hold on Ireland without 
establishing that of the Bruces. In 131 8 Edward Bruce was 
killed in battle at Dundalk. 

4. The Rule of Thomas of Lancaster (1314-1322).— 
The disaster of Bannockburn still further weakened Edward's 
position in England, and Thomas of Lancaster and his party 
among the Lords Ordainers controlled the administration. In 
131 6 Lancaster became head of the Royal Council, and was 
practically dictator. But he was no statesman, and his one aim 
seemed to be to wrest power from Edward without showing 
any capacity to wield it. He made no attempt to resist the 
Scottish invasions, and he did not lead even his own party 
efficiently. The baronial party split into factions, and Edward 
regained a measure of power. But he was unable to stand 
alone, and therefore placed himself in the hands of the two 
Despensers, father and son, upon whom he showered honours 
and favours. The barons quarrelled amongst themselves, and 
private wars broke out. Robert Bruce took advantage of 
English disorganisation, and in 13 18 captured Berwick. This 
fresh humiliation led to a temporary truce between Edward 
and Lancaster, which Lancaster signed as co-equal with 
Edward; but the king failed to recapture Berwick, and the 
Scots pushed as far as Yorkshire. 

In 132 1 Lancaster raised the cry against the king's 
favourites, the two Despensers, and rallied the barons round 
him. The favourities were sentenced to exile by Parliament. 
For the moment Lancaster seemed more influential than ever, 
but in reality power was slipping from him. Two months after 
the banishment of the Despensers, Queen Isabella was refused 
admittance into Leeds Castle in Kent by Lady Badlesmere. 
Lord Badlesmere was hostile to Lancaster, and the Earl 
allowed Edward to gather a force to punish the insult. The 
blunder was a fatal one, for the king, finding himself stronger 
than he had anticipated, turned against his enemies. Marching 
west, he recalled the Despensers, and after capturing Hereford 
and Gloucester he struck north to attack Lancaster. The Earl 



Edward II. 121 

fled, but was intercepted by Sir Andrew Harclay at Borough- 
bridge. After a fierce struggle Lancaster was captured, and 
was tried and executed in his own castle of Pontefract. Lord 
Badlesmere was hanged, and about thirty of the chief adherents 
of Lancaster were put to death, while others were imprisoned 
or fined. 

Edward completed his triumph by summoning Parliament 
to York in 1322. Parliament repealed the Ordinances, and 
the important constitutional principle was laid down that 
matters which were to be established for the king and realm 
must be sanctioned by the king and by a Parliament of the 
three estates. Edward thus seized upon the flaw in the pro- 
cedure of the barons in 13 10, viz. the election of the Ordainers 
by a Parliament from which the Commons were absent. It is 
not likely that Edward had any sympathy with the claims of 
the Commons, but none the less the great principle, which he 
upheld as a weapon to crush his opponents, was a notable 
triumph for the cause of representative government. 

5. The Deposition of Edward II. (1327). — The king 
soon let the control of affairs slip through his fingers. A 
campaign against the Scots nearly led to his capture. Sir 
Andrew Harclay, who had been rewarded with the earldom of 
Carlisle, was shortly after discovered in treasonable correspond- 
ence with Robert Bruce, and was hanged as a traitor. As 
it was clear that the reconquest of Scotland was impossible, 
Edward, in 1323, agreed to a truce for thirteen years. Matters 
in England now went from bad to worse. The Despensers 
were universally hated for their avarice and arrogance, and the 
queen was jealous of the king's trust in his favourites. The 
country was in a state of anarchy, and both the administration 
of the law and the collection of taxes almost ceased. In 1324 
Edward was summoned to do homage to Charles IV., the new 
King of France, for his possessions in Gascony. After long 
negotiations, Edward, not daring to leave England, sent Queen 
Isabella, in 1325, to France. It was arranged that the young 
Prince Edward should join her and do homage to Charles. 
As soon as he arrived, Isabella gathered around her the chief 



I2 2 Edward II. 

enemies of her husband, and announced her intention of 
delivering the king from his evil advisers. Her chief supporter 
was Roger Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore, who had been one of 
the chiefs of the opposition to the Despensers in 132 1. 

In 1326 the queen landed at Orwell, in Suffolk, and Edward, 
finding himself powerless, fled to the west of England, and 
thence to Wales. Henry of Lancaster, brother and heir of 
Earl Thomas, joined Isabella, and she was soon supported by 
nearly all the barons and bishops. The two Despensers were 
captured and hanged, and the king surrendered. Parliament 
was summoned in January, 1327, and Edward resigned. The 
three estates renounced their allegiance, and the young Edward 
was declared king. The ex-king survived his deposition for 
just eight months. The new Government could not feel safe 
from a dangerous reaction so long as he lived, and he was 
therefore secretly murdered at Berkeley Castle 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

The Lords Ordainers 1310. 

Gaveston's death 1312. 

Battle of Bannockburn ........ 1314. 

Repeal of the Ordinances ....... 1322. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

EDWARD III. (1327- 1 377). 

I. The Fall of Mortimer. — Edward was fourteen years old 
at his accession, and it was therefore necessary to provide 
for the government during his minority. A council of regency, 
consisting of fourteen members, was appointed by Parliament. 
Mortimer, who was created Earl of March, and enriched with a 
large share of the estates of the Despensers, was not a member 
of the council ; but most of the councillors were of the queen's 
party, and the influence of Isabella and her guilty partner was 
thus secured. 

The most pressing difficulty which met the new Govern- 
ment was the danger from Scotland. The aged Robert Bruce, 
though smitten by leprosy, retained all his fierce determination 
to wrest from England the recognition of Scottish independence. 
In defiance of the truce for thirteen years, signed in 1323, and 
in spite of the pacific overtures of the English Government, he 
sent his army to overrun the border counties. The young 
Edward advanced with a well-equipped army to meet the 
invaders, but halted for six weeks at York, uncertain as to the 
position of the enemy. The Scottish army, moving with 
scarcely any baggage, and consisting entirely of light-armed 
cavalry, had twice the mobility of the trained forces of the 
English, and it was only by imitating the methods of his 
enemies that Edward was at last able to come up with them. 
The English advanced by rapid marches to the Tyne, and 
sending back their heavy baggage to Durham, they crossed the 
Tyne in search of the enemy. It was not till the English 
troops were on the verge of mutiny, from want of success and 

123 



124 Edward III. 

from privation, that Edward received the welcome news that 
the Scots, under the Earl of Moray and Sir James Douglas, 
awaited his attack on the right bank of the Wear, near 
Stanhope. Edward moved southwards towards the Wear, and 
lor more than a fortnight the two armies faced each other. 
An attempt of Douglas, at the head of two hundred picked 
men, to surprise the English by night and carry off the young 
king, was nearly successful ; but the Scottish generals, realising 
that their forces were no match in a pitched battle for the 
better equipped English troops, suddenly broke up their camp 
during the night following their unsuccessful raid and disap- 
peared northwards. This was followed by negotiations, and 
in 1328 a peace was signed at Northampton, by which 
Edward III. renounced all claims to feudal supremacy over 
Scotland, and agreed to a marriage between his sister Jane 
and David, heir of Robert Bruce. 

The recognition of the independence of Scotland was a 
bitter humiliation for England, and rapidly increased the un- 
popularity of Mortimer, whose overweening pride and ambition 
made his fall inevitable. Although not a member of the 
regency, he took upon himself the supreme direction of affairs, 
and surrounded the young king with his own dependents. The 
recent murder of Edward II. was laid to his charge, and the 
scandalous intimacy subsisting between him and the queen 
shocked those who had acted with him against Edward II. 
In 1329 an association was formed against Mortimer under 
the leadership of the Earls of Kent, Norfolk, and Lancaster. 
Mortimer was, however, strong enough to break it up. Henry 
of Lancaster attempted a rising, but failed, and had to make 
his submission, while the Earl of Kent, the young king's 
uncle, was entrapped by Mortimer into a plot and, after a trial 
at Winchester before a Parliament packed with Mortimer's 
adherents, was executed. But Edward, though only eighteen 
years old, was keen-sighted enough to realise the contemptible 
position in which he was being kept. He had married 
Philippa of Hainault in 1328, and the birth of a son in 1330, 
celebrated in later years as the Black Prince, seems to have 



Edward III. 125 

roused in him both remorse for his treatment of his father, and 
disgust at the conduct of his mother. Mortimer, surrounded 
by a bodyguard of adherents, was holding his Court with 
Isabella at Nottingham Castle, when they were seized by 
Edward himself. Mortimer was tried before Parliament at 
Westminster on the charges of murdering Edward II., of 
usurping regal power, and of appropriating the public money. 
He was condemned as a traitor, and executed (1330). 

2. The Renewal of the Struggle with Scotland. — 
Amongst the stipulations of the Treaty of Northampton was a 
clause that certain English nobles, whose estates in Scotland had 
been forfeited during the wars, should be restored to their posses- 
sions. Robert Bruce, however, had died in 1329, leaving the 
kingdom to his son David, a child of seven, under the regency of 
the Earl of Moray, and as the Scottish Government delayed in 
carrying out the agreement, the barons of the north determined 
to secure its fulfilment. With this end in view, they set up the 
claims of Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, ex-king of Scot- 
land. Balliol was brought over from France, and in spite of 
the prohibition of Edward III., who refused to allow them to 
cross the borders, the confederate barons, sailing from York- 
shire, landed in Fifeshire and advanced to Dunfermline. The 
Scots were defeated at Dupplin Moor, in spite of their over- 
whelming superiority in numbers, and Edward Balliol was 
crowned king at Scone two months after his landing in Scot- 
land. David Bruce was sent over to France. Balliol now 
applied to Edward, with offers to hold Scotland as a fief of the 
English Crown, thus reversing the Treaty of Northampton. 
Edward consulted Parliament, but before he could arrive at a 
decision, the position of affairs in Scotland was completely 
altered. Balliol was surprised by Moray, the son of the late 
Regent of Scotland, at Annam, and only managed to escape 
with his life into England (1332). 

The situation was now so difficult that the English Parlia- 
ment hesitated, and in 1333 advised Edward to seek counsel 
from the Pope and the French king. But Edward had already 
determined to disregard the rights of his young brother-in-law, 



126 Edward III. 

David Bruce, and was bent on an invasion of Scotland. He 
marched against Berwick-on-Tweed, which commanded the 
Scottish border, and blockaded the town. The garrison were 
on the point of surrendering, when the new regent, Sir 
Archibald Douglas, arrived with a large army. The English 
held a strong position on Halidon Hill, protected in front by a 
marsh. Douglas was ill-advised enough to attack them, and 
met with an overwhelming defeat. Berwick surrendered, and 
Edward, having received the homage of the Scottish nobles, 
re-established Balliol on the throne. Balliol ceded to Edward 
a number of counties south of the Forth, and did homage for 
the rest of the kingdom. The Scots, however, were not yet 
conquered, and in 1334 a great rising drove Balliol from 
Scotland and restored David. Edward renewed his invasion 
of Scotland, but his presence alone could maintain Balliol on 
the throne. In 1336 the outbreak of a quarrel with France 
drew Edward south, and saved the independence of Scotland. 
Balliol was finally expelled in 1339, and in 1341 David ruled 
securely over his inheritance. 

3. The French Succession. — Philip IV., surnamed 
"the Fair," had died in 1314, leaving three sons, Louis X., 
Philip V., and Charles IV. Louis X. died in 131 6, leaving 
a son, John I., who died in the year of his accession, and 
a daughter, Joan, afterwards Queen of Navarre; but the 
French nobles, to avoid the rule of a woman, appealed to a 
law in force amongst the Salian Franks, which excluded women 
from succession to property. The same law was enforced 
when Philip V. died, leaving only daughters, and when the 
third brother, Charles IV., died without male issue in 1328 the 
French nobles, following previous precedents, gave the Crown 
to Philip of Valois, nephew of Philip IV., and cousin of the 
last three kings. Edward III. at the time had put forward a 
claim to the French throne, but it had not been taken seriously, 
and he had done homage for Aquitaine to Philip in 1329' 
though in vague terms. Ultimately in 133 1 Edward publicly 
acknowledged that his homage had been full and complete, 
and by so doing he might be said to have waived all claims to 



Edward III. 127 

the French throne. But the interference of Philip VI. on 
behalf of the Scottish patriots, and his constant intrigues in 
Aquitaine, caused Edward to revive his claim. 1 Recognising 
the validity of the Salic law, he insisted that it only applied to 
the actual succession of females to the throne, and did not 
exclude their male descendants. Edward, therefore, as son of 
Isabella, the daughter of Philip IV., had a claim prior to that 
of Philip of Valois. In reviving his claim, Edward was backed 
by the whole English nation, and in 1337, with the sanction of 
Parliament, he took the title of " King of France." 

Edward at once proceeded to negotiate alliances against 
France. Besides allying himself with the Emperor Louis of 
Bavaria, and with the Duke of Brabant and the Count of 
Hainault, he secured the powerful help of the Flemings. The 
territory of the Count of Flanders lay partly in France and 
partly in the Empire, but the Flemings, the wealthiest and most 
industrious people of Northern Europe, tired of the misgovern- 
ment of their sovereign, Count Louis, had revolted and chosen 
as their ruler James van Arteveldt, the so-called " Brewer of 
Ghent." Flanders was the great market for English wool, the 
staple English product ; and Edward was actuated both by 
commercial and political interest in supporting the Flemings 
against Count Louis, who, in his turn, relied on the friendship 
of Philip of France. Moreover, by his assumption of the title 
of French king, Edward could claim as of right the assist- 
ance of the French part of Flanders. 

4. The First Campaigns of the Hundred Years' 
War (1338-1346). — In the summer of 1338 Edward sailed 

1 CLAIM OF EDWARD III. 
Philip IV. 

! 

II II 

Louis X. Isabella = Edward II. Philip V. Charles IV. 

I I 

I Edward III. 

I I 

John I. Joan. 



i 2 8 Edward III. 

from Orwell with a large fleet, and proceeded to Antwerp. 
Here he was delayed for nearly a year by the failure of the 
Duke of Brabant and of the Flemings to fulfil their engage- 
ments, and by the intervention of the Pope. The Popes since 
1305 had been residing at Avignon, under the protection of the 
French king, a position which greatly weakened their influence 
as international mediators, and led to a renewal of the conflict 
between the Papacy and Empire. John XXII. had opposed 
the election of Louis of Bavaria, and refused to recognise him 
as emperor. Louis therefore retorted by invading Italy, and 
by setting up an anti-pope. In 1334 John was succeeded by 
Benedict XII., who, though anxious to come to terms with 
Louis, was prevented by French influence from doing so. He 
now intervened to warn Edward against allying himself with 
the emperor, a prince who had incurred excommunication. 
Edward, however, disregarded the papal commands, and, 
meeting the emperor at Coblentz, was made Imperial Vicar- 
General over the districts of the Empire to the east of the 
Rhine. This was followed by a summons from Edward to his 
allies to meet him at Mechlin, and in September, 1339, he 
advanced to attack Cambrai. Finding the town too strong to 
be captured, the allies entered France, and found that Philip 
was at Vironfosse. The French declined battle, and "Edward 
was forced by the lateness of the season to retire to Brussels, 
after a costly and fruitless campaign. The following year, 
1340, was marked by one great success — the naval victory at 
Sluys, won by Edward himself. The battle was gained by the 
superiority of the English archers, whose shafts swept the 
enemy's decks, and enabled the English to carry the ships by 
assault. For the time being the French navy ceased to exist, 
and the title of Lord of the Seas, adopted by Edward, appeared 
to be justified. But on land Edward was again unsuccessful, 
and the campaign ended with a truce for nine months. The 
struggle was renewed in 1 341, but the war was mainly waged 
in Brittany, where Edward supported John de Montfort, one of 
the claimants to the duchy, against Charles of Blois, who was 
supported by his uncle, Philip VI. A series of indecisive 



i jo Edward III. 

campaigns in Brittany and Gascony took place during the 
years 1341 to 1344, and Edward, after five years of war, found 
himself no nearer to the conquest of France. His chances of 
success seemed, in fact, to have greatly diminished, for in 1342 
he was deserted by the emperor, and thus lost the position of 
Imperial Vicar-General. 

5. The Battle of Creci and the Siege of Calais 
(1346-1347). — In 1346 Edward determined to attack France 
from the north, and not to rely any more on his Continental 
allies. Landing near Cherbourg with 30,000 men, and taking 
with him his eldest son, Edward of Woodstock, he advanced 
on Rouen. Normandy was practically undefended, for the 
bulk of Philip's forces lay in the south. Edward, therefore, 
was able to lay waste one of the richest districts in France, and 
the plunder of Norman towns was sent back to England. On 
reaching Rouen it was found that the French, temporarily 
unable to meet Edward in the field, had destroyed every bridge 
over the Seine between Rouen and Paris. As Edward could 
not retreat through the devastated country in his rear, he sent 
a body of troops to Paris, which ravaged the suburbs, while his 
main body remained at Poissy till the bridge was repaired. 
He then crossed the Seine, and marching rapidly northwards 
to avoid being cut off by the French forces, he reached the 
river Somme. Here again he was confronted by the difficulty 
caused by the destruction of all the bridges, and the fact that 
the only available ford, that at Blanche Tache, was strongly 
guarded by the French. The passage of the ford was forced 
by the English archers and cavalry, and Edward deter- 
mined to retreat no further. He drew up his army on the 
rising ground near the village of Creci, to await the attack of 
the great army of over 70,000 men which Philip had brought 
to overwhelm him. 

The English army was drawn up in three bodies, or 
" battles," two of which formed the front line. Prince Edward 
commanded that on the right, while the king himself was in 
command of the third division, which formed the reserve. 
As it was decided that the whole force should fight on foot, 



Edward III. 131 

the horses and baggage were placed in an entrenched position 
in the rear. The French troops were already tired out by a 
march of six leagues, and the attack on the English was begun 
against Philip's orders, and was conducted in a fatally hap- 
hazard fashion. The engagement was begun by Philip's 
Genoese crossbowmen, but a storm of rain had loosened 
their bowstrings, and the Genoese were thrown into hopeless 
confusion by the showers of arrows poured into their ranks 
by the English archers, who had been careful to keep their 
bows covered. Philip angrily ordered his horsemen under the 
command of his brother, the Count of Alencon, to ride over 
the Genoese, who encumbered the advance, and storm the hill 
on which the English were posted. The two divisions of the 
English were for a time hotly pressed by the superior numbers 
of the French, the "battle" under Prince Edward bearing 
the brunt of the attack ; but King Edward, who from a wind- 
mill watched the struggle, refused to send the reserve into 
action, being determined, as he said, to " let the boy win his 
spurs." The French were driven down the hill with terrible 
loss ; twelve sovereign princes, including the Count of Alencon, 
the Duke of Lorraine, and the King of Bohemia, were amongst 
the slain ; while of the lesser combatants 30,000 perished on 
the field. Philip was twice wounded, and was with difficulty 
prevailed on by his followers to seek safety in flight. The 
victory of Creci was the victory of a national force, in which 
archers, footmen, and knights fought as comrades, over a feudal 
army composed of great nobles and knights, with contingents 
of hired mercenaries and serfs, the last being dragged from 
their fields to fight, not for their country, but for their 
lords. 

On the second day after his victory Edward continued his 
march northwards, and Calais was besieged. The town had 
long been a centre from which piratical expeditions preyed on 
English commerce, and its capture was therefore of consider- 
able importance. After a rigorous blockade by sea and land 
lasting eleven months, the town surrendered (1347). At the 
intercession of Queen Philippa, the king spared the inhabitants 



132 Edward III. 

from the penalty of death for their piracies, but he banished 
the majority, and invited Englishmen to take their place. 
Edward returned home, bringing with him the spoils of his 
victorious campaign. 

In England, also, the year 1346 was marked by important 
military results. Philip VI. had relied on his ally, David 
Bruce, to create a diversion by invading the north of England, 
and the Scottish king, believing England to be bare of fighting 
men, led a force of 30,000 lightly armed horsemen on a 
raiding expedition through Cumberland. At Neville's Cross 
he was met by an army of 12,000 men hurriedly collected by 
order of Queen Philippa. The battle was again decided by 
English archers. David and many of his barons were taken 
prisoners. 

The successes of Edward III. in almost every direction, in 
Normandy, Gascony, and against the Scots, had entailed very 
heavy sacrifices in men and money on the part of the nation. 
Throughout the struggle papal pressure had been brought to 
bear on the combatants in order to stop the war, but without 
result. After the fall of Calais, however, a short armistice was 
negotiated between Edward and Philip by Clement VI., and 
this, through papal influence and through the pressure of the 
universal calamity of 1348, was prolonged for six years. 

6. The Black Death (1348).— When Edward, in the 
autumn of 1347, returned to England he stood at the climax 
of his fortunes. A brilliant series of military achievements 
shed lustre on English arms, and the spoils of France were so 
vast that, as the chronicler notes, " there was no woman who 
had not got garments, furs, feather beds, and utensils from the 
spoils of Calais and other foreign cities." Commerce flourished, 
and the introduction of cloth-weaving from Flanders opened a 
new channel of profitable employment ; while the possession of 
Calais, combined with the naval weakness of France, gave to 
England the command of the seas. The great outburst of 
material prosperity was not without its drawbacks, for the king 
and his courtiers set to the nation at large an example of 
extravagance and luxury highly dangerous to a people just 



Edward III. 133 

realising the sense of national unity. In the pages of the 
chronicler Froissart we see the splendid pageant of feudal 
chivalry, but none the less beneath the surface there lay a 
mass of suffering and of political discontent. 

According to contemporary belief the Great Plague, known 
as the Black Death, originated in China. It is first heard of 
in the Crimea, and it spread rapidly westward to Constantinople 
and to the shores of the Mediterranean. In the summer of 
1348 it appeared in Dorsetshire, and by the autumn of 1349 
it had spread all over England, and thence to Wales, Scotland, 
and Ireland. The visitation lasted altogether about fourteen 
months, but it reappeared in subsequent years, and for 300 
years England was never free from its recurrence. The mor- 
tality was appalling, and it is computed that from one-third to 
one half of the population perished. The plague struck down 
all classes and orders, rich and poor, lay and cleric. Two 
Archbishops of Canterbury died, and the frequent appointments 
to vacant livings in the same year show both the mortality 
amongst the clergy and their faithfulness as a body to their 
duties. Thus in the diocese of Norwich 800 parish priests 
died in 1349, and the diocese lost altogether about 2000 clergy 
during the visitation of the plague. 

This terrible calamity led to a great social revolution. 
The scarcity of labour was so marked that some manors could 
not be cultivated at all. Moreover, the surviving labourers 
in town and country took advantage of the scarcity to demand 
a large increase of wages, ranging from 50 to 200 per cent. 
The result was an enormous rise in the prices of all articles 
which depended mainly on labour for their value ; while the 
landowner was brought face to face with ruin by the increased 
cost of agricultural labour. For the moment Parliament could 
not meet because of the plague, but the king in 1349 issued 
an ordinance which in 1351 was embodied in the Statute of 
Labourers. This ordered that all labourers in town and 
country not employed must work at the rate of wages cus- 
tomary before the plague. Employers giving more were to 
be heavily fined, and labourers refusing to work were to be 



1 24 Edward III. 

imprisoned. At the same time it was ordered that the prices 
of necessaries should be reasonable, and this was also to be 
enforced by penalties. The Act has been condemned as 
unfair to the labourers, but it is not open to the charge as far 
as its aim was concerned. The system of dealing between 
man and man in the Middle Ages was based on the principle 
that everything had a Just Price. This included remuneration 
sufficient to enable the producer to live by his craft, and this 
being so it was held to be morally wrong for either buyer or 
seller to take advantage of the other's necessities in order to 
drive a hard bargain. The Act, therefore, in trying to prevent 
the labourers gaining an undue advantage over the employer, 
and in ordering that necessaries should be sold at reasonable 
rates, was only carrying out the familiar policy of fixing con- 
jointly the price of labour and the prices of the commodities 
which the wages of labour could buy. The real condemnation 
of the Act is that it was futile, because in the face of such 
a complete disorganisation of the social system it was impossible 
to return to the economic condition of 1347, whether with regard 
to wages or prices. The Act, therefore, justly failed, but it 
served unfortunately to exasperate both landlords and labourers 
and led indirectly to the great revolt of 1381. 

7. The Renewal of the French War. — In 1350 Philip 
VI. died, and was succeeded by his son John. The truce with 
France was repeatedly renewed, but desultory fighting was 
carried on all the same in Gascony and Brittany, and on the 
whole the French lost ground. In 1353 Edward offered peace 
if John would cede to him Gascony, Normandy, and Ponthieu, 
in full sovereignty, but these terms were rejected. Negotiations 
at Avignon, the Pope acting as intermediary, went on, but 
without result. In 1355 the Black Prince 1 led a marauding 
expedition of English and Gascons, which, starting from Bor- 
deaux, ravaged the rich district of Languedoc, and returned 
laden with plunder. Edward himself had designed an attack 
on France from the north, but was recalled to England by the 

1 The name " Black Prince" seems to have been given by the French 
to Prince Edward about this time. 



Edward III. 135 

news that the Scots had taken Berwick. He therefore hastened 
north, and after recapturing Berwick early in 1356, devastated 
the eastern Lowlands. Want of supplies, and the dispersal of 
the English fleet by a storm, forced him to retreat south. 

In the summer of 1356 the Black Prince started with a 
small force of 7000 men, with the intention of pushing through 
central France to join his father in Normandy. After marching 
as far as Bourges, plundering and burning as he went, he 
determined to return to Bordeaux, as the passages of the Loire 
were guarded in force by the French. He found himself, how- 
ever, intercepted by King John near Poitiers, and face to face 
with an army which outnumbered his by five to one. In this 
desperate position he offered terms through the papal represen- 
tative Talleyrand. These included the surrender of the prisoners 
and towns he had captured, but he refused John's demand that 
he should surrender himself a prisoner. The English army 
was therefore drawn up as at Creci in three divisions on rising 
ground, the front and flanks being protected by brushwood 
and by artificial entrenchments. Archers were stationed in 
front and along the sides of the lane on the left through which 
the English position was open to attack. The attempt of the 
French to storm the passage of the lane was defeated by the 
English archers, while the vanguard led by the Dauphin was 
thrown into confusion by the showers of arrows poured into 
them from every direction and fled in disorder. The second 
line, under the Duke of Orleans, also deserted the field of battle, 
and the Black Prince, taking the offensive, closed in on the 
third division of the French from the front and from the rear. 
King John fought with desperate courage, but was taken 
prisoner, together with his youngest son Philip and a large 
number of nobles. The French loss was 11,000 slain, while 
that of the English was insignificant. The Black Prince 
returned to Bordeaux and sailed thence to England, taking 
with him John and the other important prisoners. 

Edward had now in custody his two chief enemies, David 
of Scotland and John of France. With David peace was made 
m r 357> an d the Scottish king was released on paying a large 



1 36 Edward III. 

ransom. His ten years' residence in England had reconciled 
him to English ideas, and henceforward Edward was not 
troubled by Scottish hostility. With John terms were more 
difficult to arrange. France was in desperate straits, but the 
fierce inroads of the English and a revolt of the peasants in 
central France, known as the Jacquerie, did not bring her to 
submit to Edward as her king. In 1359 Edward led an 
expedition which ravaged the country up to the gates of Paris, 
but with no other result. In 1360, therefore, he agreed to the 
Peace of Bretigni. By this treaty Edward renounced his claims 
to the Crown of France and to Normandy, Maine, and Touraine, 
while King John ceded to him the province of Aquitaine, with 
Calais, Guisnes, and Ponthieu in full sovereignty. John's 
ransom was fixed at three million gold crowns, and the French 
king was set at liberty ; but as the money was not forthcoming 
he honourably returned to England. He died at London 
in 1364. 

8. The Black Prince in Spain. — The territories in the 
south of France, ceded by the French at Bretigni, were formed 
into a principality, which was given by Edward III. to the Black 
Prince as Prince of Aquitaine and Gascony. In 1363 the 
prince took possession of his dominions and fixed his Court 
at Bordeaux. In 1366 Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile, whose 
crimes had goaded his subjects to revolt, was driven from his 
throne by his half-brother, Henry of Trastamare, and appealed 
to the Black Prince for help. The prince received Pedro at 
Bordeaux, and with the sanction of his father agreed to inter- 
vene in Spain. Advancing through Navarre, the English army 
pushed south with the object of reaching Burgos, but it en- 
countered Henry of Trastamare on the plains between Navarette 
and Najara. The English were greatly outnumbered, but the 
Black Prince gained a complete victory (1367). Pedro charac- 
teristically refused to fulfil the promises he had made to the 
Black Prince, and the latter, finding that his army was wasting 
away from dysentery, returned to France. Apart from the 
glory of victory the campaign proved in every way disastrous, 
for the prince contracted in Spain a disease from which he never 



Edward III. 137 

recovered, and was also seriously crippled by the expenses 
he had incurred. Pedro himself was defeated by Henry of 
Trastamare, supported by France, and was soon after stabbed 
by his rival in a personal encounter. 

9. The Loss of Aquitaine. — Charles V.,who had succeeded 
his father John in 1364, had not made the renunciation of 
sovereignty over Aquitaine, and his wisdom in avoiding the 
fulfilment of the stipulations of the Treaty of Bretigni was seen 
in the opportunities thus afforded to him for interfering in 
Edward's possessions. To meet the expenses of the Spanish 
campaign, the Black Prince was forced to levy a hearth tax on 
his Aquitanian subjects. This was sanctioned by the Parlia- 
ment of Aquitaine in 1368, but a number of great nobles 
refused payment and appealed to Charles V. The French 
king summoned Prince Edward as his vassal to appear in 
Paris, and the latter retorted that if he came it would be at 
the head of 60,000 men. Charles declared war in 1369, and 
in a week conquered Ponthieu. In Aquitaine the English 
cause went from bad to worse. Town after town declared for 
the French king, while the Black Prince, weakened by disease, 
could do little to stem the French advance. In 1370 he 
besieged Limoges, which had been treacherously surrendered 
to the French. The town was captured, and the prince dis- 
graced himself by ordering the massacre of the inhabitants. 
Shortly after he left Aquitaine and returned to England, broken 
in health and fortune. His brother, John of Gaunt, Duke of 
Lancaster, now commanded in France, and led marauding 
expeditions, one of which penetrated into the heart of France. 
But Charles V. was determined to avoid the blunders made at 
Creci and Poitiers, and refused to meet the invaders in open 
battle. In 1372 an English fleet was sent, under the Earl of 
Pembroke, to relieve Rochelle, which was besieged by the 
French. It was met by a stronger Spanish fleet, sent by 
Henry of Trastamare, now King of Castile, and the ally of 
France. The English ships were surrounded and destroyed, 
Pembroke himself being captured. This blow ruined the 
English cause in Aquitaine, and by the year 1374, out of all 



Edward III. 

Ins ceded at Bretigni, England retained little more than 
Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne. In 1375, through the good 
offices of the Pope, a year's truce was agreed upon, and this 
was subsequently prolonged for the rest of the reign. 

10. Ecclesiastical Affairs.— The reign of Edward III. 
was marked by events which had an important bearing on the 
religious life of the nation. Difficult as it is to estimate the 
position of a nation in morals and religion at any given epoch, 
still it may be safely said, that in many ways religion in 
England was in a less satisfactory state than at the end of the 
thirteenth century. In the first place the residence of the 
Popes at Avignon, under the influence of the French king, 
of necessity weakened their position as supreme judges in 
Christendom. There was, in addition to this, the old source 
of trouble arising from the heavy taxation levied by the Pope 
on the clergy, which caused large sums — asserted in 1376 to 
amount to four times as much as the king's revenue — to leave 
the country annually. The Pope's collectors also received 
voluntary offerings from the laity, besides the tribute promised 
by John. The latter, however, had fallen into neglect, and 
when Urban V. in 1366 demanded the payment of the 
arrears of thirty-three years, Parliament refused, alleging the 
fictitious reason that John had acted without the consent of 
the realm. 

A more serious question was raised by the Statute of 
Pro visors in 135 1. According to Canon Law the Pope had 
the right to fill up any ecclesiastical appointment, although 
this right was restricted, both by agreements between the Holy 
See and the various Governments and by customary arrange- 
ments which had grown up with at least the implicit assent of 
the Papacy. Thus, according to Magna Carta, bishoprics in 
England were to be filled up by an election made by the 
Chapters, and the fact that bishops were also great officials 
with baronial status made it necessary that the Crown should 
be consulted. Hence the Crown when a vacancy occurred 
issued a conge d'elire, or licence to elect, to the Chapter, and 
intimated its wishes as to the person to be chosen. The 



Edward III. 139 

person elected then sought the confirmation of the archbishop, 
and in the case of an archiepiscopal election that of the Pope. 
On receiving this, consecration followed, and the king then 
conferred on the bishop the temporal possessions of the see. 
In the thirteenth century disputed elections were very common, 
and the Holy See, being invoked to decide, sometimes set 
aside the rival claimants, and appointed directly by what were 
called " Bulls of Provision.'" l Early in the fourteenth century 
the right of provision and reservation 2 was applied by the 
Holy See to the appointment of bishops. This was exercised 
practically without opposition under Edward II. and under 
Edward III. up to 1350. In 135 1, however, the Statute of 
Provisors was passed, ordering that all persons receiving papal 
provisions should be liable to imprisonment, and that all 
preferments filled by provisions should forfeit for that turn 
to the Crown. This Act, it is to be noted, so far from up- 
holding the claims of chapters and patrons, set them aside on 
the pretence of protecting them. In 1353. by the Statute of 
Praemunire, the king's subjects were forbidden to plead in any 
foreign court in matters which could be decided by the king's 
courts. The Holy See was not directly mentioned in the 
statute, but in 1365 suitors in papal courts were brought 
under it. Against this statute the bishops protested. On the 
whole the effect of this legislation was small. It was mainly 
prompted by the fear that through the papal appointment of 
foreigners to English sees, the bishops, who with the abbots 
formed the majority of the House of Lords, would have a 
dangerous influence on the national policy. The Acts secured 
to the Crown a voice in episcopal appointments, and this being 
safe, the Crown willingly invoked the papal nomination against 
which the Acts were in theory directed. Papal provisions were 
in fact more frequent after 1351 than before, and the history of 

1 This system oi provisions had already been in force on a large scale 
with reference to benefices and other clerical appointments, and under 
Henry III. had caused much friction. 

* Reservation was the right ol the Pope to reserve to himself in advance 
the filling up of the next vacancy. 



140 Edward III. 

the Statute of Provisors is marked by a long series of evasions 
of the statute by the Crown. 

11. The Anti= clerical Movement. — It was during 
the period of anti-papal legislation that John Wyclif first 
became prominent. His success as an anti-clerical leader 
was favoured not only by the strained relations with the 
Papacy caused by heavy taxation, and by the excessive 
use of the papal right of granting preferments, but also 
by the absorption of English bishops in the transaction 
of State business. The tendency of the higher clergy to 
monopolise the offices of State naturally roused the jealousy 
of laymen. 

John Wyclif was born in Yorkshire towards the end of the 
reign of Edward II. He was of good family, and being 
destined for the priesthood, he finished his education at 
Oxford. He became Master of Balliol College about 1357, 
and in 1361 he applied to the Pope for an appointment by 
provision to preferment at York. In 1374 he was sent as 
ambassador to Bruges to negotiate with the delegates of 
Gregory XI. on the subject of papal and royal claims to 
grant benefices. The conference had no permanent results, 
but Wyclif, probably as a reward for his services, was appointed 
by the Crown to the living of Lutterworth in Leicestershire. 
At Bruges Wyclif met the king's son, John of Gaunt, Duke of 
Lancaster, who led the party opposed to the political power 
of the clergy. 

The chief opponent of the anti-clerical party was William 
of Wykeham, the great royal and ecclesiastical architect, 
who had become Bishop of Winchester and in 1367 chancellor. 
The failure of English arms in France was popularly ascribed 
to Wykeham, the chief minister, and in 137 1 the Commons 
in Parliament petitioned against the government being carried 
on by Churchmen. Wykeham resigned the chancellorship, 
and the Lancastrian party came into power, but failed com- 
pletely to stop the disasters abroad. At home affairs were 
equally unsatisfactory. The king, since the death of Queen 
Philippa, had fallen under the evil influence of Alice Perrers, 



Edward III. 141 

the extravagance of the Court was greater than ever, and 
ministers were suspected of corruption. The crisis culmi- 
nated in the "Good Parliament" of 1376, when the Black 
Prince, the friend of Wykeham, put himself at the head of the 
opposition. The Commons impeached Lord Latimer, Lord 
Neville, and Richard Lyons. The accused were found guilty 
of financial frauds. Alice Perrers was then attacked and 
sentenced to banishment. In the midst of these proceedings 
the Black Prince died ; but in spite of this loss to their side, 
the Commons, fearing the intrigues of John of Gaunt against 
his nephew, insisted on seeing Prince Edward's heir, Richard 
of Bordeaux. They also demanded the addition to the royal 
council of twelve new councillors, amongst whom was Wykeham, 
and they presented one hundred and forty petitions dealing 
with various abuses. 

As soon as Parliament dispersed, John of Gaunt recalled 
the impeached ministers, dismissed the new councillors, and 
imprisoned De la Mare, the Speaker of the Commons. Wyke- 
ham was accused of peculation, and tried by a great council at 
Westminster. The temporalties of his see were sequestrated. 
Convocation retorted by an attack on Wyclif, the dependent 
of John of Gaunt, whose views on the relations of Church and 
State were becoming notorious. Wyclif was summoned to 
appear before the bishops and came to St. Paul's, accompanied 
by John of Gaunt, Lord Percy, and other powerful supporters. 
The insolent behaviour of Duke John towards Courtenay, 
Bishop of London, whom he assailed with threats of violence, 
caused the Londoners to break in on the proceedings, and the 
duke barely escaped with his life. Wyclif, who did not share 
his unpopularity, was unharmed. Amidst these bitter conflicts 
at home and failures abroad, Edward III. ended his reign 
in 1377. 

12. Constitutional Progress under Edward III. — 
The contrast between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 
has been sharply drawn by historians. With the advent of the 
fourteenth century " we pass from the age of heroism to the 
age of chivalry, from a century ennobled by devotion and 



142 Edward III. 

self-sacrifice to one in which the gloss of superficial refinement 
fails to hide the reality of heartless selfishness and moral 
degradation." (Stubbs.) The foundation of the Order of the 
Garter by Edward III., with great pomp, during the ravages of 
the Black Death, and the massacre at Limoges, ordered by the 
Black Prince, illustrate the darker side of chivalry. But none 
the less the century had most important results, for it marked 
the growth of the House of Commons to its full share of 
power. In 1295 the Commons were the weakest of the three 
estates ; by 1 400 they were the foremost of the three. Their 
rise to power was mainly due to three causes. 

(a) The Union of the Knights and Burgesses in 
One House. — The Commons consisted of two elements, 
knights of the shire and burgesses. The former as minor 
tenants-in-chief had originally shared with the great barons the 
right of attendance in the Magnum Concilium, and at first 
they tended to act in conjunction with the barons, deliberating 
apart from the burgesses and voting a different share of taxa- 
tion. Before long, however, they threw in their lot with the 
majority of the representatives, so that in 1341 they are found 
sitting and acting with the citizens and burgesses. The knights 
of the shire from their position and antecedents formed the 
natural leaders of the Commons, and it was by them that the 
battles of the Constitution in the fourteenth century were 
fought and won. 

(b) The Divisions amongst the Barons. — These no 
longer formed a body with interests distinct alike from Crown 
and Commons, and they tended to fall into groups in alliance 
with one or the other. 

(c) The War with France.-— The constant need of 
money forced the Crown to appeal to the nation for support, 
and by their " power of the purse " the Commons could use 
the royal necessities as opportunities to obtain concessions. 

13- Powers of Parliament under Edward III. — 
These may be summed up under the following heads : — 

(a) Legislation.— In 1322 Edward II., in repealing the 
ordinances, had laid down that all three estates must be 



Edward III. 143 

consulted on matters touching the realm. This implied the 
legislative action of the Commons, which at this period took 
the form of petitions. The Commons drew up a petition 
emhodying the redress of some grievance, and if the Crown 
assented, the Royal Council drew up a statute on the lines of 
the petition. The method was, however, unsatisfactory in its 
working, for the Commons complained that the statute did 
not embody the points in their petition, or that clauses saving 
the rights of the king were inserted, thus nullifying the 
concession. 

(b). Taxation. — In 1297, by the Confirmatio Cartarum, 
Edward I. had promised not to levy " such manner of aids, 
mises or prises, except by the common assent of the realm." 
The vague wording of the clause left the Crown opportunities 
for taxation without the consent of Parliament, and throughout 
Edward III.'s reign there was a struggle on the part of the 
Commons to bring all forms of taxation under their control. 
Thus the Crown in 1340 had to surrender the right of tallages, 
i.e. of taxing the royal towns. In 1362 purveyance was 
severely restricted by statute, and in 1371 Parliament forced 
the king to give up the practice of increasing the export duty 
on wool by private arrangement with the merchants. An Act 
forbade any increase of the kind without the consent of 
Parliament. In 1373 the import duties on wine and general 
merchandise were brought under Parliamentary control. Thus 
by the close of the reign Parliament had gained a hold on all 
the main sources of taxation. But besides controlling the 
raising of taxation, Parliament now aimed at seeing that it was 
properly spent. Hence the practice known as the " Appro- 
priation of Supplies." Money was not granted in large sums 
to be expended as the king chose, but was allotted to definite 
objects. Thus in 1353 the taxes granted were ordered to be 
spent on the French war. To make this practice effective , 
Parliament claimed the right to appoint commissioners to 
audit the accounts, but this the king successfully resisted, and 
it was not secured till the following reign. 

(c) Control of the Administration. — The most obvious 



[^4 Edward III. 

way to effect this was that of having a voice in the appoint- 
ment of ministers, a right for which there were precedents in 
the thirteenth century, viz. in the minority of Henry III., and 
during the years 1258 to 1264, when the Provisions of Oxford 
were in force. Edward II. had also been forced to concede 
the right in the ordinances of 131 1. But under Edward III., 
although it was claimed in 1341, it was not successfully upheld. 
In 1376 Parliament, as we have seen, asserted its authority 
over ministers by impeaching Latimer, Lyons, and Neville. 

(d) Foreign Policy. — As foreign wars meant heavy taxa- 
tion it was clearly wise for the king to consult Parliament as to 
his policy. Hence we find Edward III. obtaining the consent 
of Parliament to his assumption of the title of King of France. 
Later on the Treaty of Bretigni was ratified by Parliament. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Treaty of Northampton 1328. 

Battle of Halidon Hill 1333. 

Edward claims the French throne .... 1337. 

Battle of Sluys 1340. 

Battle of Creci 1346. 

Statute of Labourers 1351. 

Battle of Poitiers 1356. 

Peace of Bretigni 1360. 

The Good Parliament 1376. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

RICHARD II. '1377-1399J. 

I. The Council of Regency. — Richard II., now in his 

eleventh year, succeeded to a heritage of trouble. England's 
military and naval power had collapsed, and the French were 
plundering the south coasts. The nation was worn out by 
the long war, and torn by dissensions political, religious, and 
economic. Fortunately the first measures of the reign were 
directed towards a general reconciliation. Richard remained 
in the care of his mother, Joan of Kent, and a council of 
regency was appointed with representatives from both parties. 
William of Wykeham was declared guiltless of the offences 
alleged against him, while Wyclif was consulted by the Govern- 
ment on the relations of England to the Pope. In 1378 the 
Great Schism in the Papacy, which lasted thirty-eight years, 
began, and a period disastrous for the whole Church followed. 
2. The Revolt of the Villans (1381).— The Statute of 
Labourers (135 1) had proved a failure, and the manorial lords 
therefore tried to protect themselves against the ruinous rise of 
wages by reversing the system of commuting labour dues for 
money payments. The villans naturally objected to the up- 
setting of a bargain because it had ceased to be favourable to 
their lords. Much of their hostility was directed against the 
monastic bodies, and a connexion has been traced between 
this and Wyclifs teaching on the subject of rights of 
property, and his attacks on the possessions of the clergy. 
It seems clear that Wyclifs "poor priests," by their fierce 
denunciations of existing ecclesiastical order, had stirred up 
the people and created a dangerous spirit of discontent. The 

i45 L 



146 Richard II. 

revolt, however, cannot be ascribed to any one cause, although 
the oppressive conduct of the manorial lords gave undoubtedly 
the strongest impulse to it. The primary demand of the 
villans was for personal freedom and a fixed rent for their 
land of fourpence per acre. 

The revolt broke out almost simultaneously in Essex 
and Kent, and in the latter county the rebels rose under 
Wat Tyler to resist the poll-tax ordered by Parliament. 
The rapid spread of the movement to all the south-eastern 
counties showed that it had been long prepared. The 
Kentish men marched on Canterbury and thence to London, 
where they destroyed the palace of John of Gaunt, whom 
they considered their bitterest enemy. From all sides rebels 
converged on London, and on their march they destroyed, 
wherever they could, the manorial rolls, which were the legal 
records of their serfdom. The Government for the moment 
was paralysed, but the situation was saved by the young king. 
Richard met the Essex men at Mile End, and prevailed on 
them to return home by promising the abolition of villanage. 
During his absence the Kentish men forced their way into the 
Tower and murdered Archbishop Sudbury, the chancellor, and 
Hales the treasurer. Next day Richard met them at Smithfield 
in order to negotiate, and during the interview Wat Tyler was 
struck down by Walworth, the lord mayor. Richard, with 
astonishing coolness for a lad of sixteen, at once rode alone 
into the ranks of the rebels and successfully claimed their 
allegiance. He promised them freedom from bondage, and 
led them to Clerkenwell Fields, where they were surrounded 
by royal troops, and, surrendering at discretion, were dismissed 
to their homes. In the other counties — for the revolt spread 
north to Yorkshire and west to Somersetshire — the risings 
were summarily put down. Parliament was summoned, and 
refused to sanction Richard's promises to the villans, on the 
ground that Richard could not give away the rights of his 
subjects. It censured the Government as being, through its 
incompetence, the cause of the recent troubles, and appointed 
a commission to reform the royal household. In 1382 Richard 



Richard II. 147 

married Anne of Bohemia, and, in honour of the occasion, a 
general pardon was issued to the rebels. To all appearances, 
therefore, the rising had failed, but, in reality, villanage had 
received its death-blow. Although in theory it lingered on, 
the practice of commuting labour dues became practically 
universal, and improved methods of cultivation and tenure 
relieved the landlords from their difficulties. By the close of 
the Middle Ages serfdom as a general system was extinct in 
England. 

3. The Condemnation of Wyclif. — In some of his 
writings Wyclif had asserted that sin deprives a man of all 
rights of property, that all property should be held in common, 
and that the Church should hold no possessions. These 
propositions were doubtless matters of theory, but Wyclifs 
powerful position, both intellectual and political, gave vast 
influence to his teaching. Moreover, the attacks of the rebels 
on Church property, receiving as they did no condemnation 
from Wyclif, illustrated in a startling manner the practical 
dangers of such theories. Since the development of the 
Great Schism, Wyclif had passed from ominous speculations 
to overt attacks on the whole Church system. A stream of 
pamphlets, written in that terse vivid English which has won 
for him the title of the founder of English prose writing, poured 
contempt on the papal claims, the episcopate, monks, friars, 
Confession and Indulgences, and the seven Sacraments. His 
denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation in 1381 led, in 
1382, to the summons of a council of bishops by Courtenay, 
now Archbishop of Canterbury, at which Wyclifs teaching was 
condemned. The University of Oxford, which was the centre 
of Wyclifs activity, although repudiating his sacramental 
theories, refused to obey the archbishop's mandate to put 
down erroneous teaching. The Government therefore inter- 
fered, and, under the double pressure of royal and episcopal 
authority, the University was purged of heretical teachers and 
writings. Some of Wyclifs chief adherents submitted, but 
Wyclif himself was unmolested, and died in 1384 at 
Lutterworth. 



148 Richard II. 

4. The Lords Appellant. — Although the king by his 
conduct in 1381 had shown capacity for leadership, he found 
himself in 1385 still under the control of Parliament and of the 
great nobles. Chafing at the restriction, he gathered round 
him a body of favourites, amongst whom were Michael de la 
Pole, who was chancellor and Earl of Suffolk, and De Vere, 
Earl of Oxford, who was created Duke of Ireland. John of 
Gaunt was in Spain prosecuting claims to the throne of Castile, 
but his younger brother, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of 
Gloucester, now headed a body of nobles, who were deter- 
mined to keep the king in leading-strings. These included 
Henry of Bolingbroke, Earl of Derby, the son of John of 
Gaunt, and the Earls of Warwick, Nottingham, and Arundel. 
Seizing the opportunity afforded by the heavy taxation for the 
French war, which since the beginning of the reign had run 
a costly and disastrous course, the Opposition in Parliament in 
1386 impeached Suffolk. Richard at first refused to allow 
his servant to be attacked, but gave way when Gloucester 
threatened him with the fate of Edward II. Suffolk was con- 
demned, and a commission of eleven magnates was appointed, 
setting aside the king's authority for a year. 

Richard was determined not to yield without a struggle. 
He obtained a decision from the judges that the appointment 
of the commission was treasonable, and he made a rapid 
progress through the country, calling on the sheriffs to raise 
forces for his defence. Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel 
took up arms, and advancing on London, whither the king 
had retired, they accused his chief adherents of treason and 
forced him to order the arrest of his friends. Henry of 
Bolingbroke defeated De Vere at Radcot Bridge, and the 
latter, with Suffolk and Archbishop Neville, fled abroad. 
Early in 1388 the so-called "Merciless Parliament" met. 
The king was helpless, and his enemies were triumphant. 
The five hostile nobles, Gloucester, Warwick, Arundel, Not- 
tingham, and Derby, "appealed of treason," i.e. accused, 
five of the king's adherents, Suffolk, De Vere, Tressilian, 
Brember, and Archbishop Neville. The Lords condemned 



Richard II. 149 

the accused laymen to death, and Neville to forfeit his 
temporaries. Tressilian and Brember, who had been cap- 
tured, were executed. Four minor adherents of the king 
suffered death, and the cruelly vindictive conduct of the 
" Lords Appellant " was rewarded by a Parliamentary grant 
of ^20,000. For a year Richard submitted, but in May, 
1389, on the ground that he was of age, he suddenly 
shook off the control of his conquerors, and publicly declared 
that he meant to administer the kingdom. 

5. Richard as Constitutional King (1389-1397). — For 
eight years Richard ruled constitutionally. No attempt was 
made either to recall his three favourities, who had escaped, or 
take vengeance on the appellant lords. Truces with France 
stopped the heavy drain on the nation, and taxation was 
therefore moderate. The king's relations with Parliament were 
excellent. In 1390 he ordered his ministers to resign and 
submit themselves to the judgment of Parliament ; the two 
Houses declared that there were no complaints, and the 
ministers resumed their functions. Some important legislation 
was passed, including the famous Statute of Praemunire, 1393. 
The appellant lords were restored to favour, and appeared in 
royal council. The only danger was the spread of the in- 
fluence of the Lollards, as the followers of Wyclif were now 
called, but no severe measures were taken against them. This 
period of the reign, therefore, is on the whole one of political 
pacification, and Richard's conduct, which up to 1389 recalls 
that of Edward II., now seems to anticipate that of Henry IV. 

6. Richard's Attempt at Despotism (1397-1398). — 
About 1397 Richard's conduct changed. In 1394 Richard's 
queen, Anne of Bohemia, had died, and in 1396 he married a 
second wife, Isabella, daughter of Charles VI. of France. The 
Court became extravagant, and Richard borrowed lavishly on 
all sides. When Parliament met, Sir Thomas Haxey, a proctor 
of the clergy, urged the Commons to reform the royal house- 
hold. The Commons accepted the bill, but Richard at once 
interfered, and insisted that it was an attack on his prerogative. 
The Commons apologised, and Haxley was condemned by 



i^o Richard II. 

Parliament to die as a traitor, a fate from which he was only 
saved by Archbishop Arundel. Richard now seems to have 
determined to take his long delayed vengeance on Gloucester, 
Warwick, and Arundel. He had already won over Derby and 
Nottingham, and could count on their support. The three 
Appellants were arrested, and were appealed of treason in the 
Parliament of 1397. They were condemned, and Arundel was 
executed forthwith. Warwick, by submitting, escaped with a 
sentence of imprisonment for life, while Gloucester was found 
dead at Calais, where he was imprisoned. Richard's triumph 
was completed by the Parliament of Shrewsbury in 1398, which 
granted him a revenue for life, and delegated its authority to a 
committee of eighteen of his adherents. 

7. The Deposition of Richard (1399). — The king could 
not feel himself safe while Nottingham and Derby were still 
unpunished, although he had rewarded them by making Not- 
tingham Duke of Norfolk, and Derby Duke of Hereford. 
The latter had already betrayed to Richard the fact that 
Norfolk did not believe in the pardon granted to them for 
their conduct in 1388. This treachery provoked a quarrel 
between the two dukes, and it was decided that they should 
decide the matter by combat at Coventry. Richard, however, 
suddenly interrupted the proceedings and banished them both. 
On the death of John of Gaunt in 1399, Richard, in defiance 
of his promises to Hereford, seized the Lancastrian estates. 
Leaving his uncle, Edmund, Duke of York, as regent, he then 
crossed over to Ireland. Henry of Lancaster at once landed 
in Yorkshire to claim his Lancastrian inheritance, and marched 
westward towards Bristol. He was joined by the great nobles 
of the north, led by Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and by the 
regent, Edmund of York, and when Richard landed in Wales 
he found himself deserted by his friends. Henry still main- 
tained the fiction that he had come only to claim his estates, 
and he now obtained the surrender of the king at Flint Castle 
by asserting that his aim was to help Richard to govern better. 
But Henry soon threw off the mask, and Richard was hurried 
to London and imprisoned in the Tower. Parliament was 



Richard II. 151 

summoned, but before it met Richard had signed his abdica- 
tion, declaring himself insufficient and useless, and not unworthy 
to be deposed. The deed of resignation was read before the 
assembled Parliament, and accepted by the three estates. 
Parliament then formally declared Richard to be deposed. 
Henry of Lancaster claimed the throne, and with the assent of 
Parliament was proclaimed king. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

The Villans' Revolt 1381. 

Death of Wyclif 1384. 

Merciless Parliament 1388. 

Parliament of Shrewsbury 1398. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

HENRY IV. (1399-1413). 

i. The House of Lancaster. — The accession Df the House 
of Lancaster marks an important epoch in English history. 
Throughout the fourteenth century the struggle between the 
royal prerogative and the expanding claims of Parliament had 
gone on with varying results. On the whole, victory had lain 
on the side of Parliament, and especially of the Third Estate. 
During the greater part of the reign of Richard II., Parliament 
had exercised the rights of controlling legislation and taxation 
which had been vindicated under Edward III., and it had 
made good its claim to appropriate supplies and to audit 
accounts. So important had the House of Commons become, 
that it seemed wiser to the party in power to influence its 
composition than to attempt to resist it. Twice during the 
last thirty years of the century the packing of Parliament was 
attempted, in 1377 in the Lancastrian interest, in 1387 in that 
of the Crown. 

In the eight years of constitutional rule under Richard II., 
the constitutional development of the century seemed to reach 
its climax. For two years indeed it was in grave danger, for 
Richard fell not from misgovernment alone, but because he 
challenged the nation to decide between the old constitution 
and a new despotism. The personal grievances of Henry of 
Lancaster brought matters to a crisis, and Henry himself 
succeeded to the throne, because men saw, as his biographer 
tells us, that he would rule " not so much by title of blood as 
by popular election." It remained to be proved whether a 
king, guided if not overshadowed by Parliament, could govern 
effectivelv. 

"5* 



Henry IV. 153 

2. The Conspiracy of the Hollands (1400). — Although 
Richard had fallen without a friend raising a hand to save him, 
he was not without partisans, and before Henry had reigned 
three months, these were conspiring to restore him. Amongst 
the conspirators were the Earl of Rutland, son of the Duke of 
York, the two Hollands, the Earls of Huntingdon and Kent, 
who were the step-brother and step-nephew respectively of 
Richard II., together with John Beaufort, Earl of Somerset, 
and Montague, Earl of Salisbury. All these had been deprived 
of titles and honours in Henry's first Parliament, and their 
loyalty had been treated as suspect. Their scheme was to 
seize Henry at Windsor, and proclaim Richard, whom for 
greater security the new Government had removed to Ponte- 
fract. Rutland betrayed the plot to Henry, and the king 
struck at once. The Earls of Kent and Salisbury were killed 
by the mob at Cirencester, and the Earl of Huntingdon 
was captured in Essex and beheaded. The failure of the 
rising made Richard's death inevitable, and the late king 
was secretly murdered at Pontefract. 

3. The Welsh Rebellion (1401). — Henry's position 
was still insecure, for Charles VI. of France treated him as 
a usurper, and the renewal of the French war was expected. 
To ward off a Scottish attack, Henry himself led a fruitless 
expedition across the border. In Wales there was a serious 
rising, led by Owen Glendower, a Welsh landowner, who 
proclaimed himself Prince of Wales. Henry hurried to the 
west, and led an expedition into north Wales. But Glendower 
retired to the mountains, and the king, unable to deal with an 
enemy who evaded his attack, gave up the attempt in despair. 
A second expedition in 1401 had no greater success. In 1402 
Henry determined on a great effort to crush the rebellion. A 
large army was marched into the disaffected district, but 
incessant rains made operations impracticable, and after three 
weeks' campaigning Henry returned to England. 

4. The Battle of Homildon Hill, and the Revolt of 
the Percies (1402-1403). — While Henry had been waging 
an inglorious warfare in Wales, his supporters the Percies had 



1 54 Henry IV. 

achieved a brilliant success against the Scots. In the summer 
of 1402 a Scottish army entered England and pushed their 
raid as far as Newcastle, but on their return journey found 
their retreat cut off by an English force under the two Percies, 
the Earl of Northumberland and his eldest son, Henry, sur- 
named " Hotspur." The Scots were defeated at Homildon Hill, 
and their leaders, the Earl of Douglas and the Earl of Fife, 
with other Scottish nobles, were captured. The victory was 
wholly due to the superiority of the English archers. This 
great service rendered by the Percies to Henry was the cause 
of the most dangerous insurrection of the reign. Since his 
accession his popularity had steadily declined. Taxation had 
been heavy, and Henry's own military attempts had proved 
futile. There was a widely spread rumour that Richard II. 
was not dead, and an impostor had appeared at the Court of 
Robert III. of Scotland, and had been recognised as the late 
king. Apart from this there were the claims of Edmund, Earl 
of March, the great-grandson of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 
third son of Edward III., who by the rules of hereditary 
succession was heir to Richard II. Henry owed his throne 
mainly to the support of the Percies, and both the Earl of 
Northumberland and his son had spent their fortunes in 
resisting the Welsh and Scots. In 1403 they complained 
to the king, though apparently without justification, that their 
services had not been rewarded, and Hotspur, in spite of the 
king's orders, refused to part with his prisoner the Earl of 
Douglas. Moreover, during the Welsh war Sir Richard Morti- 
mer, uncle of the young Earl of March, and brother-in-law of 
Hotspur, had been captured by Glendower, and Henry offended 
Hotspur by refusing to allow Mortimer to be ransomed, being 
probably glad to keep one of the rival family out of the way. 

The Percies retaliated by a great conspiracy, which was 
joined by a third Percy, Thomas Earl of Worcester, brother to 
the Earl of Northumberland. Henry Hotspur advanced into 
Cheshire, where Richard II. had always been popular, and 
having gathered a large force moved southward, hoping to 
effect a junction with Owen Glendower, with whom his father 



Henry IV. 155 

had signed a treaty. He encountered Henry at Shrewsbury, 
which the king had reached on the previous day, after a forced 
march from Lichfield. Hotspur took up his position about 
three miles north of the town, and here was fought one of the 
fiercest battles on English soil. Henry commanded in person, 
and under him served his son Henry, a lad of fifteen. The 
royal arms gained a decisive victory, and Hotspur was slain. 
His uncle, the Earl of Worcester, was captured, and two days 
later was executed for treason. The Earl of Northumberland 
met Henry at York and submitted. 

5. The Last Conspiracies of the Reign (1405-1408). — 
Henry followed up his victory at Shrewsbury by another raid 
into Wales, but he was now convinced that the repression of 
Glendower was beyond his resources, and he therefore con- 
tented himself with strengthening the border fortresses and 
returned to London, leaving Prince Henry in command of the 
Welsh Marches. In 1405 Henry had again to face trouble 
from the Percy faction. The aged Earl of Northumberland, 
who had escaped so lightly in 1403, conspired with Thomas, 
Lord Mowbray, and Scrope, Archbishop of York, to raise 
the north in rebellion. The archbishop and Mowbray led 
the rebels to Shipton Moor, near York, where they were met 
by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, and Prince John, 
the king's third son. Negotiations followed, and the leaders of 
the rebels, deceived by Westmoreland's promise to co-operate 
in securing their demands, dismissed their forces. Westmore- 
land at once arrested Scrope and Mowbray, and Henry, 
after an informal trial, ordered their immediate execution. 
Undismayed by the universal horror excited by this atrocious 
deed, Henry struck north in pursuit of Northumberland. The 
earl fled to Scotland and thence to France, while the king 
reduced the strongholds of the Percy family. About this 
time, by a stroke of good fortune, Henry secured a valuable 
hostage in the person of James, the son and heir of Robert III. 
of Scotland. The young prince was on his way to France to 
be educated at the French Court, but he was captured by an 
English ship, and remained in England for eighteen years, 



156 Henry IV. 

although the death of Robert in 1406 made him King of 
Scotland. 

In 1408 the veteran intriguer, the Earl of Northumberland, 
ended his career by trying to raise a rebellion in Yorkshire. 
He was defeated and killed at Bramham Moor. This ended 
the conspiracies against Henry. In other directions his 
position was now secure. Glendower maintained his inde- 
pendence, but the Welsh were confined to their own hills, 
and no longer ventured to cross the borders. The French 
had been defeated at sea, and the outbreak of civil war in 
France in 1407 removed all danger from that quarter. 
Charles VI. was imbecile, and the control of the government 
was disputed by the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans. Orleans 
was murdered, and civil war followed between the Burgundians 
and Armagnacs, as the Orleans party was now called. 

6. Constitutional Progress. — Throughout this reign 
Henry was hampered by want of money, and Parliament 
gained further powers by taking advantage of the royal 
necessities. In 1401 the Commons obtained a pledge from 
Henry that he would not take notice of proceedings in 
Parliament before they were completed. In 1404 the 
Commons insisted on the removal of four persons from 
attendance on the king, and the royal household was put 
on an allowance of ^12,000 a year. In 1406 the Commons 
drew up a scheme of reform, which almost amounted to 
taking all power from the king's hands. In 1407 the rule 
was established that all grants of money must be initiated 
in the Commons. Throughout the reign the Commons 
assumed a dictatorial tone; the king and his ministers were 
lectured on their defects, and the extravagance of the royal 
household was condemned. 

7. The End of the Reign.— For some years Henry had 
suffered from a disease which contemporaries believed to be 
leprosy. In 1410 his health failed so much that Prince Henry, 
supported by his cousins the Beauforts, assumed the direction 
of the government. The king seems to have shown some 
jealousy of his son's influence, and in 141 1 was bitterly 



Henry IV. 157 

aggrieved by the suggestion that he should resign the crown. 
The estrangement between father and son caused the latter 
to retire from affairs. But he had not long to wait, for Henry 
died early in 141 3, broken in health and spirit. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Homildon Hill 1402. 

Battle of Shrewsbury 1403. 

Execution of Mowbray and Archbishop 

Scrope 1405. 

Initiation of money bills secured to the 

Commons I 407« 



CHAPTER XIX. 

HENRY V. (1413-1422). 

i. Henry's Character. — Some picturesque legends have 
gathered round the youth of Henry V., and have been im- 
mortalised by Shakespeare. But his life, since he was fifteen, 
had been spent in camp or in the council room ; his pressing 
cares as guardian of the Welsh Marches must have left him 
little time for idle pleasure, and after 1407, when he ceased 
to take part in Welsh campaigns, he had other duties laid 
upon him by the declining health of his father. He was a 
high-spirited youth, ambitious, and liable to partisanship, but 
his accession to the throne increased his sense of responsibility 
and strengthened his character. " A true Englishman, with all 
the greatnesses and none of the glaring faults of his Plantagenet 
ancestors, he stands forth as the typical mediaeval hero. At the 
same time he was a laborious man of business, a self-denying 
and hardy warrior, a cultivated scholar, and a most devout 
and charitable Christian." (Stubbs.) 

2. Henry V. and the Lollards. — At the outset Henry 
showed that he did not intend to rule as the head of a party, 
the position forced on Henry IV. by the circumstances of his 
accession. His measures, therefore, were directed towards the 
pacification of political antagonisms. The only events of im- 
portance were connected with the suppression of the Lollards. 
In 1 40 1 a statute had been passed known as "de Haeretico 
comburendo," by which heretics who refused to abjure were 
to be handed over to the sheriff to be burned. The number 
of Lollards who suffered the extreme penalty was not large, 
for many recanted, but the spread of their doctrines continued 

158 



Henry V. 159 

to alarm the nation, all the more because of the communistic 
ideas associated with Wyclif's teaching. At the accession of 
Henry V., the Lollards were still an influential party. The 
chief Lollard leader was Sir John Oldcastle, known as Lord 
Cobham, a personal friend of the young king. He was 
summoned by the archbishop to recant his errors, but refused 
to appear, and was therefore arrested and condemned. He 
escaped from the Tower and remained at large for four years. 
In 1 41 4 a conspiracy was formed to seize the king, and on 
this failing, the Lollards held a great meeting in St. Giles' 
Fields, hoping apparently to overawe the Government. 
Henry posted a strong force in the Fields, and a number of 
Lollards were arrested and executed. Oldcastle escaped, 
and after leading a wandering life, was finally captured 
and executed in 141 7. The Lollard movement gradually 
dwindled, and by the close of the century was comparatively 
unimportant. 

3. The Outbreak of War with France. — In the spring 
of 141 5, Henry laid formal claim to the throne of France. 
His claim was an attempt to revive the pretensions of Edward 
III., but, in view of the fact that Henry's title to the English 
throne was only a Parliamentary one, and that by the strict 
rule of hereditary succession the Earl of March should have 
been King of England, it is clear that Henry's claim to France 
was untenable. The disturbed state of France, however, 
invited aggression. The French king, Charles VI., had been 
for some years hopelessly insane, and the kingdom in con- 
sequence was torn by a struggle between the north and east 
of France under John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, the 
king's cousin, and the south and west under Louis, Duke of 
Orleans, the king's brother. In 1407 the Duke of Orleans 
was murdered in Paris by a Burgundian partisan, and the Duke 
of Burgundy accepted responsibility for the crime. The young 
Duke of Orleans, therefore, vowed vengeance on his father's 
murderer, and to strengthen himself, married the daughter of 
Bernard, Count of Armagnac, a powerful noble of the south, 
and a skilful warrior. From this alliance the Orleanist party 



160 Henry V. 

gained the name of Armagnacs. Both Burgundians and 
Armagnacs had appealed to England under Henry IV., and 
in 141 1, through the influence of Prince Henry, help had 
been sent to the Burgundians. But in the following year the 
Prince had lost favour with his father, and English policy was 
reversed. Henry IV.'s second son, Thomas, led an expedi- 
tion to France to help the Armagnacs. At the accession of 
Henry V., both sides again appealed to England, but Henry, 
after some hesitation, determined to claim the French throne, 
and prepared to invade France. The army met at Southampton, 
but was delayed by the discovery of a conspiracy on the part 
of Richard, Earl of Cambridge, to proclaim his brother-in-law, 
the Earl of March, King of England, as soon as Henry had left 
the country. The Earl of Cambridge was arrested and executed. 
No measures were taken against the Earl of March, as he was 
not implicated in the plot. 

Starting from Southampton with 30,000 men, Henry landed 
at Havre and laid siege to Harfleur, which surrendered after 
an obstinate defence, during which the English army was much 
reduced by disease. Henry therefore decided to march north- 
wards and return to England by Calais. To cross the Somme 
he had to go much out of his way, and when the crossing was 
effected above Peronne, he found his march northward barred 
by a strong French army. He therefore halted his troops near 
Agincourt and prepared for battle. The French outnumbered 
the English by at least three to one, but Henry, seeing that 
they would not begin the battle, ordered his men to advance. 
Once again the English archers repeated the tactics which had 
prevailed at Creci and Poitiers. The French, huddled together 
in close formation, could not take advantage of their numbers, 
and offered a conspicuous target for the showers of arrows 
poured on them. After a fierce struggle the first and second 
lines of the French were defeated, and the third line was easily 
routed. Ten thousand French were killed ; two royal princes, 
the Dukes of Bourbon and Orleans, and an immense number 
of prisoners were captured. Four days later Henry reached 
Calais, and after a short stay, sailed for England. 



Henry V. 1 6 1 

4. Henry's Second Campaign (1417-1420). — Henry's 
victory made him the arbiter of western Europe, and the 
greatness of his international position is seen in the visit paid 
to England by Sigismund, King of the Romans and emperor 
elect. Sigismund was engaged at this moment in an attempt 
to heal the schism in the Papacy which had been raging since 
1378. Two lines of rival Popes claimed the allegiance of the 
faithful, and Europe was divided into two groups. Of these 
Germany and England acknowledged Urban VI. and his 
successors, Boniface IX., Innocent VII., and Gregory XII. ; 
while France, Spain, Scotland, and Sicily recognised Clement 
VII., and his successor, Benedict XIII. In 1409 the Council 
of Pisa had striven to close the schism by decreeing 
the deposition of Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., and by 
electing Alexander V. But this had only made matters 
more confused by creating a third claimant to the Papacy. 
Alexander V. was succeeded by John XXIII., and under 
pressure from Sigismund, the Pope summoned a council to 
meet at Constance in 141 4. Terrible charges were brought 
against the character of John XXIII., and the Pope fled from 
Constance to ScharThausen. The Council decreed his de- 
position. Sigismund then left Constance to visit France and 
England. His aim was to procure the resignation of Gregory 
XII. and Benedict XIII., and to pose as the pacificator of 
Europe by negotiating a peace between France and England. 
The schism was healed by the election of Martin V. in 141 7, 
but the struggle between Henry V. and Charles VI. was not 
stopped. Sigismund himself abandoned the role of mediator, 
and signed a treaty with England against France. 

In 141 7 Henry settled down to the conquest of Normandy, 
and for three years the struggle raged round the Norman 
fortresses. The siege and capture of Rouen in 141 9 com- 
pleted the conquest of the province, and the fall of Pontoise 
opened the road to Paris. The imminent danger of conquest 
caused both the French factions to enter into negotiations with 
Henry, but the latter's lowest terms included the cession of all 
the English gains acquired by the Treaty of Bre'tigni in 1360, 

M 



1 62 Henry V. 

together with Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and^ Brittany. The 
Dauphin Charles was bitterly hostile to John the Fearless, and 
his mother, Queen Isabella, had, till 141 7, shared the same 
hatred for the Duke of Burgundy. But she now quarrelled 
with the Armagnacs, and abandoning her hostility to Burgundy, 
she reconciled herself to the duke. The terms demanded by 
Henry roused for the moment the national spirit of France, 
and a truce was concluded between the rival factions. A 
meeting was arranged between the Dauphin Charles and Duke 
John on the bridge at Montereau. Instead of a reconciliation, 
however, the duke was murdered by the Dauphin's followers, 
and his son Philip, in revenge, declared himself a partisan of 
Henry V. As Queen Isabella was eager for any terms which 
involved the exclusion of her detested son from the throne of 
France, a settlement was soon agreed on. The result was the 
Treaty of Troyes, 1420. Henry was recognised as heir to the 
French throne, and was to govern as regent during the lifetime 
of Charles VI. He was married to Princess Catherine, the 
daughter of the French king. By a separate treaty with 
Burgundy, Henry agreed to join with the duke in crushing the 
Armagnacs. 

5. Henry's Third Campaign and Death (1420-1422). 
—After a triumphant entry into Paris, Henry returned to 
England with his young queen, leaving his brother, the Duke of 
Clarence, as his lieutenant in France. In England Henry and 
his bride were received with acclamations, and he made a pro- 
gress through the kingdom, visiting the chief towns and making 
pilgrimages to some of the famous shrines. But his progress 
was cut short by the news of a disaster in France. The 
Armagnacs were still powerful south of the Loire, and held 
some strong positions to the north of the river. Clarence and 
the Burgundians set themselves to reduce these strongholds. 
In 142 1 the allies encountered a contingent of French and 
Scottish troops at Beaugt', in Anjou, and were defeated, 
Clarence being amongst the slain. Henry at once returned 
to France and established his supremacy in the district north 
of the Loire. Early in 1422 he was joined in Paris by Queen 



Henry V. 163 

Catherine, with her son, an infant of six months. But Henry's 
health was now rapidly failing and he had to leave the com- 
mand of military operations to his brother, John, Duke of 
Bedford. Attacked by dysentery he was carried to Bois de 
Vincennes, and spent his last hours in making arrangements 
for the government of the two kingdoms and in devoutly pre- 
paring for death. 

Although Henry died at the early age of thirty-four, he left 
on his contemporaries the impression of commanding abilities, 
united to a singularly upright and religious disposition. He 
excelled in every virtue that can adorn the throne; brave, 
temperate, chaste, he was a constitutional king, faithful to his 
plighted word and beloved by his subjects. He was a brilliant 
strategist and was in advance of his times in his consideration 
for his enemies. Plunder and outrage, the accompaniments of 
mediaeval warfare, were sternly repressed by his orders. Had 
he lived to the normal span of life, it is probable that he would 
have found the task of holding France in subjection to be 
beyond his resources ; but even during his short rule over the 
French possessions, he showed by his upright government a 
marked contrast to the miserable results wrought by the ignoble 
strife of Burgundians and Armagnacs. Henry is the last of 
England's great kings, and it would seem that in his person 
were summed up the virtues and abilities of Alfred and 
Edward I., together with the brilliant, but less noble qualities 
of Henry II. and Edward III. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Henry claims the French throne I 4iS- 

Battle of Agincourt I 4 I 5- 

Conquest of Normandy 1417-1419. 

Treaty of Troyes 1420. 



CHAPTER XX. 

HENRY VI. (1422-1461). 

(1) The Loss of France (1422-1453). 

1. The Regency. — Henry VI. was nine months old at his 
accession to the English throne, and the death of his grand- 
father, the imbecile Charles VI., less than two months later 
brought him the Crown of France. The Dauphin, however, 
at once took the title of Charles VII., and his prospects of 
ultimate success were favourable ; for in spite of all the victories 
of Henry V. the English hold on France was confined to a 
triangular district, whose base was the coast from the river 
Somme to Brittany and its apex Paris. South of the Loire the 
rule of Charles was not disputed, but in the north and east he 
had formidable enemies, the most important being the Duke 
of Burgundy. The chief danger to the French national cause 
lay, however, in the character of Charles himself. Indolent, 
listless, unwarlike, he left to others the task of fighting for 
national independence, and his final triumph was due to the 
splendid impulse given to his cause by Jeanne d'Arc and to 
the disunion amongst the English. 

As the Duke of Bedford was busy in France, his younger 
brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, claimed the regency 
in England. This was refused by Parliament, and Bedford 
was appointed Protector of the realm and chief counsellor of 
the king. In his absence the same position was to be 
occupied by Gloucester. A Council of Regency was appointed 
by Parliament, including the leading nobles and bishops, and 
its powers were carefully defined. 

164 



Henry VI. 165 

2. Political and Military Events (1423-1426). — 

Meanwhile Bedford was occupied in measures to strengthen 
the alliance with the Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany, on which 
the English position in France so largely depended. In 1423 
a treaty was concluded at Amiens providing for a defensive 
and offensive alliance with Burgundy and Brittany, and Bedford 
married Anne, sister of the Duke of Burgundy. Bedford's 
policy of maintaining the Burgundian alliance was nevertheless 
at once weakened by the conduct of Gloucester. Jacqueline, 
the heiress of Hainault, had deserted her husband, the Duke of 
Brabant, cousin of Philip of Burgundy, and, in spite of the 
refusal of Pope Martin V. to annul her marriage, contracted a 
union with Humphrey of Gloucester. Hainault was important 
to the Burgundian interest, and the duke was deeply incensed 
when Gloucester proceeded to push Jacqueline's claims by 
threatening to wrest Hainault from her lawful husband the 
Duke of Brabant. 

The campaigns of 1423 and 1424 were not on a large 
scale, but the English won two victories of some importance. 
In 1423 a force of Scottish and French troops was defeated by 
the Earl of Salisbury at Crevant, on the borders of Burgundy, 
and in 1424 Bedford inflicted a crushing defeat on the French 
at Verneuil. The French army contained a large contingent 
of Scots, which was almost annihilated. Scottish interference 
in France now practically ceased, for early in 1424 James I. of 
Scotland was released, after eighteen years captivity in England, 
and a truce for seven years was agreed upon. James returned 
to Scotland with his bride, Jane Beaufort, granddaughter of 
John of Gaunt. These successes were neutralised to some 
extent by the foolishness of Gloucester, who in 1424 attempted 
to invade Hainault and Brabant. This nearly provoked a 
reconciliation between Charles VII. and Philip of Burgundy ; 
but fortunately for the Anglo-Burgundian alliance, Gloucester 
grew tired both of the campaign and of Jacqueline, and soon 
after he had returned to England he abandoned Jacqueline 
and married Eleanor Cobham. In England his quarrel with 
his uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, paralysed 



1 66 Henry VI. 

the Government, and for the greater part of 1425 and 1426 
Bedford was detained in England in the capacity of peace- 
maker. 

3. The Career of Jeanne d'Arc (1428-1431). Five 

years had now passed since the accession of Henry VI. to the 
French throne, but in spite of continual fighting and some 
successes the English grip on France was loosening. England 
was already feeling the strain of the long struggle, while France, 
in spite of her disasters, was entering upon a period of national 
regeneration. Charles VII. had none of the qualities of a 
national hero, but forces were gathering which would carry 
him to success in spite of himself. 

In 1428 Bedford decided on an invasion of the country 
south of the Loire, where Charles had been hitherto secure. 
As a preliminary the Earl of Salisbury with an army was 
ordered to lay siege to Orleans on the north bank of the Loire. 
The death of Salisbury while directing the siege turned it into 
a blockade, and he was succeeded in the command by the Earl 
of Suffolk. In 1429 an attempt of the French to capture an 
English convoy was beaten off by Sir John Fastolf at the 
" Battle of the Herrings/' as the fight was nicknamed on 
account of the provisions under convoy, and the besieged 
were in desperate straits when help reached them from an 
unexpected quarter. 

Early in 1429 Jeanne d'Arc, a peasant girl from Domremy, 
on the borders of Champagne, had appeared at the Court of 
Charles VII at Chinon, claiming to have received a mission 
from St. Michael and St. Catherine to achieve a twofold task, 

he relief of Orleans and the coronation of Charles at Rheims. 
In s pite of the rebuffs and cynical treatment on the part of 
the coders -her transparent sincerity and goodness won for 
the ore 7nu* T ^ *"* She ™ at Iast Emitted to 

mssion b Ce H C t. ad ?'; "' h ° m She P r0ved her supernatural 

ZisL * rf WWledge ° f SeCretS of which he «*>ne — 

a fo"ce whil W3S , agreed ' hat She Sh0uld be allow ed to lead 

on her 2£, "?, f" 8 M f ° r the relief of 0rl -ns, and 
on her arnval with the troops at Blois she sent a message to 



Henry VI. 167 

Bedford ordering him to raise the siege. Her purity and 
gentleness worked wonders amongst the dissolute soldiers who 
followed her standard, while her extraordinary intuition enabled 
her to disregard with impunity the advice of the trained leaders 
who accompanied her. At the end of April she entered 
Orleans with a convoy of provisions, and rousing the garrison 
by her enthusiasm, she attacked and destroyed several of the 
forts erected by the besiegers. Ten days after her entry into 
Orleans the English army retired. Jeanne was now reinforced 
by recruits from all parts of France, and following up her 
advantage she pursued the English to Patay, where she defeated 
and then captured Sir John Talbot, one of the greatest generals 
of the day, who was in command. The second portion of the 
task, which her " voices " had ordered her to complete, rapidly 
followed. Jeanne persuaded Charles to march towards Rheims. 
The towns on the line of march surrendered, and in the 
Cathedral at Rheims, less than four months from her arrival 
at Chinon, Jeanne, clad in her knightly dress and carrying her 
sacred banner, stood by Charles at his coronation. Her tasks 
were now achieved, and she asked permission to return to her 
home. Against her will, and the direction of her " voices," 
she was persuaded to continue her military career. Jeanne 
urged the king to attack Paris forthwith, and it is probable that 
if he had consented the English hold on the capital would have 
been lost. Bedford was in great alarm and the loyalty of 
Burgundy was only secured by cessions of territory. But 
Jeanne's influence was checked by Court intrigues and by the 
jealousy of the military leaders, who objected to her command. 
In consequence the move towards Paris was undertaken when 
it was too late to succeed, and Charles refused to risk himself 
in attacking Paris, while Jeanne was repulsed and wounded in 
her attempt. Charles forbade Jeanne to renew the attack and 
disbanded his army. Throughout the campaign, which in 
other directions had been successful, Jeanne was thwarted by 
paltry intrigues, to which Charles himself was a party. 

In 1429 Bedford had bought the continued adhesion of 
Burgundy to the English cause by the cession of Champagne, 



1 68 Henry VI. 

which was important to the duke, because its possession would 
unite his territories in Flanders and Burgundy; and in 1430 
Burgundian troops besieged Compiegne, one of the towns in 
Champagne which Jeanne herself had conquered. With a 
small body of followers she entered the town, but in a sortie 
against the besiegers she was repulsed and captured. She was 
sold to the English by the Duke of Burgundy for 10,000 francs 
of gold. In 1 43 1 she was tried at Rouen on a charge of 
sorcery and heresy, and after a trial lasting three months was 
condemned and burned at the stake. During the prolonged 
torture of her trial she had wavered in the conviction of her 
supernatural mission, but at the last she met her death with 
simple courage and constancy, and with unflinching faith in 
the reality of the inspirations she had received. 

4. The Defection of Philip of Burgundy (1431-1434). 
— The treachery of Charles in dealing with Jeanne had found 
a fitting conclusion in the apathy with which he regarded her 
fate. But she had given voice to the rising sentiment of 
patriotism, and she had proved that the day of easy victories 
for the English was over. In 1432 Bedford's wife, the sister 
of Philip of Burgundy, died, and shortly after Bedford married 
Jacquetta of Luxemburg. She was a vassal of Philip, and the 
duke was bitterly aggrieved that his consent had not been 
asked. A personal rupture between him and Bedford was the 
result. In England the failure of the war had created a strong 
peace party, headed by Cardinal Beaufort, Bishop of Win- 
chester. For years a bitter feud had raged between Gloucester 
and his uncle the cardinal, and Bedford had been constantly 
hampered by their quarrels. A revolution in the Court of 
Charles VII. had driven from power the ministers who had 
thwarted Jeanne, and Charles was now willing to come to 
terms with Philip of Burgundy. At Nevers, 1435, an agree- 
ment was made between Charles and Philip, by which the 
English were to be offered reasonable terms, and if these were 
refused, Philip was to aid in pacifying France. A congress 
was summoned to Arras in 1435, at which Charles offered the 
cession of Normandy in return for the English renunciation of 



Henry VI. 169 

all claims on the French throne. The English envoys repu- 
diated these terms and retired from the negotiations. This 
was followed by a formal peace between Charles and Philip ; 
the French king apologised for the murder of Philip's father, 
and made a number of territorial cessions. Before these 
negotiations were completed Bedford had died at Rouen, and 
his death was followed by the ruin of the aims for which 
Henry V. had striven. In 1436 Paris opened its gates to 
Charles, and once more became the capital of France. 

5. Richard, Duke of York. — On the death of Bedford 
the regency was given to the Duke of York, who inherited the 
claims of two sons of Edward III. On his father's side he 
was grandson of Edmund, Duke of York, the fifth son of 
Edward III., while on his mother's side he claimed descent 
from the third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence. As the Earl of 
March, his uncle, had died in 1425, he had a better hereditary 
claim to the throne than Henry VI. In spite of his ability as a 
commander, which gained for him some victories, he was unable 
to do more than act on the defensive. This, however, he 
did with considerable success, and on the whole no ground 
was lost in Normandy, while he was in command from 1441 
to 1443. 

6. The Rivalry between Gloucester and Beaufort. 
— In 1442 Henry VI. came of age. He had been brought up 
under the care of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and 
had been carefully trained in all the physical and mental 
accomplishments of the age. But his health was delicate, and 
his mind had been overtaxed by the cares of government and 
by the sense of the duties of his position. " Pious, pure, 
generous, patient, simple, true, and just, fastidiously con- 
scientious, moderate, he might have seemed made to rule a 
quiet people in quiet times." (Stubbs.) But it was his hard 
lot to succeed to an impossible task, and the stress of anxieties, 
caused by disasters in France and furious animosities at home, 
broke down his constitution already prematurely developed, 
and left him, weakened in mind and body, a helpless victim of 
the forces which he could not control. 



70 Henry VI. 



For the moment his assumption of power gave an impulse 
to the peace party headed by Cardinal Beaufort. In 1444 
William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, one of the peace party, 
was sent to France to negotiate terms. Charles VII. refused 
the English offer of a marriage between one of his daughters 
and Henry, and Suffolk therefore arranged a marriage between 
Margaret, daughter of Rene of Anjou, the brother-in-law of the 
French king. A truce for ten months was agreed upon at 
Tours, but it was purchased by the promised surrender of 
Maine by the English. Suffolk was rewarded for his success 
with the title of duke. 

The truce with France was prolonged till 1 448, and by that 
time the two great rivals, Cardinal Beaufort and Humphrey of 
Gloucester, were dead. Since 1442 Gloucester's influence had 
been rapidly waning, for Henry suspected his uncle of designs 
on the throne, and was displeased with Gloucester's champion- 
ship of the war party. Gloucester was, moreover, bitterly 
hostile to the young queen and to Suffolk, who had succeeded 
to the influence of Cardinal Beaufort. In 1447 Parliament 
was summoned to Bury St. Edmunds, where Suffolk had 
plenty of supporters. Gloucester was arrested, and died of 
the shock. His death occurred at a moment most propitious 
to the designs of Suffolk, and it was inevitable that the latter 
should be accused by popular rumour of the murder of his 
rival. Six weeks later Cardinal Beaufort died at Winchester. 

7. The Fall of Suffolk.— The deaths of Gloucester and 
Cardinal Beaufort left Suffolk supreme in the councils of the 
nation. Firmly convinced that the English claim to the 
French throne was impracticable, he wisely aimed at securing 
at least Normandy and Guienne. But his home policy was 
dictated by a narrow jealousy which roused enmities on all 
sides. Edmund Beaufort, now Duke of Somerset in succession 
to his brother, was given the command in France, while the 
Duke of York was entrusted with the government of Ireland. 
The struggle with France was renewed in 1449, and a series of 
disasters followed. Somerset, an incapable general, was badly 
supported by the Government, and in 1449 the Norman towns 



Henry VI. 171 

were captured by the French with comparative ease. By the 
close of the year the English held only a small number of 
towns, the most important of which were Harfleur, Caen, and 
Cherbourg. Roused by these disasters, and stimulated by the 
cries of treachery raised in England, the Government in 1450 
made a great effort, and reinforcements were landed at Cher- 
bourg under Sir Thomas Kyriell; but the army was cut to 
pieces at Formigny. The defeat was followed by the surrender 
of Caen and Cherbourg, and this completed the loss of 
Normandy. 

These disasters led inevitably to the overthrow of Suffolk. 
He was impeached by the Commons and sent to the Tower. 
Henry, however, had determined not to allow his minister to 
be seriously harmed, and he therefore took the matter out of 
the hands of Parliament, and sentenced Suffolk to banishment 
for five years. But on the way to the Continent Suffolk's ship 
was boarded in the Channel and he was murdered at sea. 

8. The Rebellion of Jack Cade (1450). — England was 
now seething w T ith discontent. The peace party represented 
by Suffolk had been unable either to carry on war with honour 
or to obtain reasonable terms ; but in spite of the condemna- 
tion of Suffolk they remained in power. In Whitsun week the 
Commons of Kent rose under Jack Cade, who issued a pro- 
clamation stating his intention of removing the evil counsellors 
of the king, whom he accused of treacherously betraying English 
interests in France, and of general misgovernment. The rebels 
marched on London, but Henry, with 20,000 men, advanced 
to Blackheath, and Cade retreated. Unfortunately a detach- 
ment of royal troops was defeated at Sevenoaks, and mutiny 
broke out in the ranks of the army. Henry fled to Kenilworth, 
while Cade entered London and plundered the citizens. The 
Londoners, who had sympathised hitherto with the rebels, now 
turned against them, and Cade was defeated in a fight on 
London Bridge. The rebels agreed to disperse on receiving 
a pardon, but Cade was killed in Kent, and the Government, 
recovering from its panic, inflicted severe punishment on the 
disaffected districts. 



172 Henry VI. 



9. The Intervention of Richard, Duke of York (1450- 
1453). — Cade had insisted that he was carrying out the wishes 
of Richard, Duke of York, to whom he falsely declared himself 
to be related, and it is clear that in the popular mind the Duke 
of York was regarded as the only possible saviour of the 
country from the evils brought upon it by Suffolk and Somerset. 
York's period of command in Normandy, though not brilliantly 
successful, was in marked contrast to the abject failures of 
Somerset. In 1450 York returned from Ireland to lead the 
opposition against Somerset, who was high in the favour of 
Henry and Margaret. A violent struggle took place in Parlia- 
ment, the Commons being on the side of York, while Somerset 
had the support of the Court. In 1451 the Commons de- 
manded the banishment of Somerset and several of his 
adherents, and Henry made some concessions. But York's 
position as heir-presumptive to the throne made him unwilling 
to push matters to an extreme, and Somerset was not removed 
from Court. Fresh disasters in France, however, hurried on 
the crisis. Guienne was still in English hands, but after the 
conquest of Normandy Charles VII. concentrated his efforts in 
order to drive out the English. The surrender of Bordeaux 
was followed by that of Bayonne, and ultimately of all the 
English towns in the south. This disgrace, which the Govern- 
ment had done nothing to avert, roused York to action. In 
1452 he advanced on London with a large force, but was pre- 
vailed on to break up his army on the understanding that 
Somerset should be arrested. The understanding was not 
carried out, and Somerset seized the opportunity to regain 
popularity by sending an army under the veteran Talbot, Earl 
of Shrewsbury, to recover Gascony. There seemed some 
prospect of success, for the Gascons were already discontented 
with French rule, and preferred the connection with England, 
so valuable on account of their wine trade. Talbot landed at 
Medoc, Bordeaux opened its gates, and other successes fol- 
lowed. In 1453 Charles VII. therefore took the field in 
person, and Castillon was besieged. Talbot hastened to the 
rescue, but was defeated and killed. Bordeaux and the other - 



Henry VI. 173 

towns surrendered, and the English possession of Gasconv, 
which had lasted for 300 years, came to an end. Of all the 
conquests of Edward III. and Henry V. only Calais remained 
as the fruit of the " Hundred Years' War.'' 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

AD. 

The Relief of Orleans 1429. 

Capture of Jeanne d'Arc 1430. 

End of the Burg-undian Alliance 1435. 

Death of Bedford 1435- 

Henry marries Margaret of Anjou .... 1445. 

Death of Gloucester 1447. 

Loss of French possessions ....»,. 1453. 



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CHAPTER XXI. 

HENRY VI. (1422-1461). 

(2) The Wars of the Roses (1454-1461). 

1. The Protectorate of Richard of York.— Shortly after 
the defeat of Castillon, Henry became insane, and while he 
was in this condition, his son Edward was born. Hitherto York, 
as heir of the Mortimers, could count on ultimately succeed- 
ing to the throne ; but the birth of a son to Henry made York's 
peaceful accession impossible, and forced him to raise the 
question whether the House of Lancaster was legally entitled 
to the throne. He thus passed from being the expectant heir 
to being the active rival of Henry and his little son. This 
attitude was not at once adopted openly, but Margaret realised 
the danger, and bent all her energies to defend the rights of 
her husband and infant child. 

As soon as the king's state became known the question of 
the regency increased the rivalry between Margaret and York . 
The House of Lords decided in favour of the duke, who was 
made Protector. Somerset had already been sent to prison, 
and York, relieved of his enemy's presence, could direct all 
his attention to the government of the country. He promptly 
interfered in the north of England to stop the private war, 
which was going on between the Percies and Nevilles, and if 
Henry's illness had continued, a strong Government might have 
been formed. By the close of 1454, however, Henry suddenly 
recovered, and early in the following year Somerset was released, 
and the ministers appointed by the Protector were dismissed. 
York refused to submit tamely to the restoration of Somerset's 

176 



Henry VI. 177 

influence, and backed by the Nevilles, Richard, Earl of Salis- 
bury, and his son Richard, Earl of Warwick, advanced on 
London. Henry and Somerset set out from London to meet 
him, and the two armies came into collision with one another 
at St. Albans, where the first battle of the Civil War was 
fought. Somerset was killed, and Henry was captured. The 
excitement of the struggle brought on a second attack of 
Henry's infirmity, and York, who still claimed to be the loyal 
subject of Henry, was again made Protector. In 1456 Henry 
again recovered, and dismissed York from office. 

2. The Renewal of the Struggle (1450-1461). — For 
two years Henry strove hard to maintain the peace, but the 
rivalry of the Lancastrians and Yorkists had irretrievably 
weakened his government, and the country was a prey to 
disorder. In 1458 a solemn reconciliation took place at 
St. Paul's Cathedral, at which Margaret and York, and the other 
leaders of both sides, vowed friendship. But the truce was 
a hollow one, and peace was only maintained for a year. Both 
the Nevilles were bitterly opposed to Margaret, and York 
was now openly aiming at the Crown. In the autumn of 1459 
the Earl of Salisbury collected an army and defeated Lord 
Audley at Blore Heath in Staffordshire. The final break 
between Lancastrians and Yorkists had now occurred, and 
civil war flamed up in all directions. While the Duke of York 
gathered his forces, Henry for once acted with surprising 
vigour. He marched on Ludlow, where York, Salisbury, and 
Warwick were stationed, and by promising a pardon to those 
who submitted, won over a number of Yorkists. The rest 
were seized with a panic and fled. York took refuge in 
Ireland, while Salisbury and Warwick retired to Calais. 
Parliament was summoned, and the Yorkists were attainted 
of treason. 

In 1460 Salisbury and Warwick landed in England, 
accompanied by York's son Edward, Earl of March, and were 
warmly welcomed by the Londoners. Henry was defeated at 
Northampton, and for the second time fell into the hands of his 
enemies. A new Parliament* reversed the attainders against 

N 



ENGLAND 

from 1066 to 1485. 

English Miles 
o 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 




Walker &Cockerell sc. 



Henry VI. 179 

the Yorkists, and York came over from Ireland and formally 
claimed the throne. After much delay it was agreed that 
the Yorkist claim was irrefutable ; but a compromise was 
arranged by which Henry was to hold the Crown for life, 
and recognise York as heir. Margaret had no intention 
of seeing her son's rights set aside. Since the defeat at 
Northampton she had taken refuge in the north of England, 
where the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, 
together with other nobles, rallied round her. Leaving 
Warwick with the king in London, York marched into York- 
shire, where he encountered the Lancastrian lords at Wake- 
field. His army was outnumbered, and he died fighting 
at the head of his troops. After the battle of Northampton 
a number of the leading Lancastrians had been killed, and the 
victorious side now exacted their revenge. York's second son, 
Edmund, Earl of Rutland, a youth of seventeen, was brutally 
killed, and Salisbury, who was captured after the battle, was 
beheaded. 

The march of events was now swift and decisive. The 
victory of Wakefield had been won on December 30, 1460, 
but Margaret's absence in Scotland prevented an immediate 
move on London. Edward, Earl of March, had been sent 
by his father to the Welsh borders, where Jasper Tudor, Earl 
of Pembroke, the half-brother of Henry VI., was raising forces. 
On February 2, Edward inflicted a severe defeat on the 
Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, near Wigmore. Pembroke 
fled to Wales ; but his father, Owen Tudor, who had married 
Catherine, the widow of Henry V., was captured and beheaded. 
Shortly after the defeat, Margaret began her march on the 
capital. She was at the head of a motley collection of fight- 
ing men, with recruits from Wales and Scotland. Hitherto the 
civil war had not been attended by serious evils inflicted on 
the non-combatant population. It had been more or less a 
faction fight, in which the country at large was not implicated. 
But unluckily for her cause, Margaret allowed her rough 
troopers to pillage and destroy as they marched south, and 
her vindictiveness turned the strongest elements in the nation 



180 Henry VI. 

against her. At St. Albans she met Warwick, who had 
brought Henry with him, together with such of the Yorkist 
forces as could be hastily mustered. On February 17, 
Warwick was routed, and Henry was restored to his wife 
and son. Warwick escaped with a remnant of his army. A 
prompt march on London would have had a decisive result, 
but Margaret dared not face the hostile citizens, and she 
therefore led her troops northward, plundering as they went. 
Meanwhile, Edward had formed a junction with Warwick 
in Oxfordshire, and the two entered London. Edward laid 
claim to the throne, and was acclaimed king by an informal 
gathering of his adherents. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

York appointed Protector 1454. 

First Battle of St. Albans 1455. 

Battle of Blore Heath 1459. 

Battle of Northampton 1460. 

Battle of Wakefield 1460. 

Battle of Mortimer's Cross 1461. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

EDWARD IV. (1461-1483). 

i. The Conquest of the North (1461).-— Edward was pro- 
claimed king on March 4, and ten days later set out on 
his journey north in pursuit of Henry and Margaret. His 
army was a large one, for Margaret's conduct had alienated 
the south, and Edward could count on the support of the 
commercial classes, whom the pillage and outrages of the 
northern army had profoundly alarmed. From the first 
Henry's wife had been regarded with suspicion ; her marriage 
had been associated with the loss of Maine, and with the 
humiliation of England on the Continent ; and since then 
her heroic defence of the rights of her husband and son had 
been marred in the eyes of Englishmen by her intrigues with 
the Scots, and by the misconduct of her followers. On 
March 29, a decisive battle was fought at Towton, in 
Yorkshire, and the Lancastrians, after fighting with fierce 
determination, suffered a disastrous defeat. Orders had been 
issued that no quarter should be given, and a contemporary 
statement estimates that 28,000 men were killed. Margaret, 
with her husband a"nd son, fled to Scotland. After receiving 
the submission of York and the northern towns, Edward 
returned to London for his solemn coronation. Warwick 
and his brother, John Neville, Earl of Montagu, were left 
in command of the forces of the north. The king's brothers, 
George and Richard, were created Dukes of Clarence and 
Gloucester, and titles were showered upon the Yorkist leaders. 
Parliament declared the three Lancastrian kings, Henry IV., 
Henry V., and Henry VI., to have been "intruders," and 

181 



1 82 Edward IV. 

acknowledged that Edward possessed all the rights and pre- 
rogatives of Richard II. The revolution of 1399 was thus 
reversed ; but although the Lancastrian kings and their Parlia- 
ments were declared " pretensed," Acts were passed ratifying 
practically all transactions which had taken place during the 
Lancastrian period. Without this the rights of individuals and 
corporations might have been called in question, and the 
whole fabric of society would have been endangered. A bill 
of attainder was passed against Henry VI., Margaret, Prince 
Edward, and a number of Lancastrians. The Lancastrian 
estates were forfeited to the Crown. 

In the north the indomitable Margaret still continued the 
struggle. By the surrender of Berwick she had purchased rein- 
forcements from Scotland, and in 1462 she proceeded to France, 
where she obtained money and troops from Louis XI. on security 
of a mortgage on the town of Calais. She was, thus prepared 
to give up the remaining conquests of Edward III. Returning 
to Scotland, she invaded Northumberland with her foreign 
troops. Her expedition failed ; and she fled with her son to 
Flanders. The diplomacy of Edward IV. soon neutralised her 
efforts in France and Scotland. In 1463 Louis XL, under the 
influence of the Duke of Burgundy, signed a truce with Edward, 
and abandoned the Lancastrians. Edward also successfully 
negotiated a truce with Scotland. The Lancastrians now re- 
solved on a final effort. In 1464 Henry VI. himself invaded 
Northumberland, but was defeated by Montagu at Hedgeley 
Moor, near Morpeth. Three weeks later Montagu defeated 
the Lancastrians near Hexham, and Henry .fled, to Lancashire. 
The pacification of the north rapidly followed. 

2. The Rupture between Edward and the Nevilles 
( 1 464-1 469), — Although Edward now seemed secure on the 
throne, his position depended on the loyalty of the Nevilles. 
Warwick, the " king-maker," was at the height of his power. 
He had rendered brilliant services to the Yorkist dynasty, and 
he was now the first subject in the kingdom. His brother, 
Montagu, was raised to the earldom of Northumberland, and 
another brother, George Neville, became Archbishop of York. 



Edward IV. 183 

Further, since the victory of Towton, Edward had taken no 
part in stamping out the Lancastrian resistance, and had given 
himself up to the pleasures and dissipation in which his self- 
indulgent disposition found satisfaction. It was clear that 
the king would marry, and Warwick hoped to utilise this in 
order to procure important political connections abroad. He 
was anxious that Edward should purchase a firm peace with 
France by marrying Bona of Savoy, sister-in-law of Louis XI. 
Edward allowed Warwick to negotiate on the subject, and then 
deeply offended his chief supporter by announcing that he 
had been secretly married for some months to Elizabeth 
Woodville. The new queen was a daughter of Jacquetta of 
Luxemburg, widow of the Regent Bedford, by her second 
husband, Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers. Warwick, therefore, 
saw with dismay the accession of a queen, who politically was 
closely connected with the Lancastrians. 

The capture of Henry VI. in 1465, and the removal of the 
king to the Tower, completed the series of successes gained 
by Edward, but the growing alienation of the Nevilles 
threatened to undermine his throne. To strengthen himself 
Edward promoted marriages between his wife's relations and 
the chief nobles. Edward's father-in-law, Lord Rivers, was 
made treasurer and constable. In opposition to Warwick's 
advocacy of a French alliance, Edward betrothed his sister 
Margaret to Charles, later called " the Bold," the heir of Philip 
of Burgundy. About the same time Warwick's brother, the 
Archbishop of York, was dismissed from the chancellorship. 
Warwick retaliated by proposing a marriage between his 
daughter Isabella and the king's brother, George, Duke of 
Clarence, the heir presumptive. This Edward interfered to 
prevent, and in 1468 announced his intention of prosecuting 
a war against France. Warwick's aims and interests had thus 
been thwarted in all directions, and a complete rupture was 
inevitable. 

3. Warwick's Rebellion (1469-1470). — In 1469 a series 
of plots came to light, in most of which Warwick was probably 
implicated. Warwick himself had withdrawn to Calais, and 



1 84 Edward IV. 

while there the marriage between Isabella Neville and Clarence 
was celebrated. Warwick and Clarence then issued a joint 
manifesto, declaring their intention of obtaining a redress of 
their grievances. Warwick also secretly promised to make 
Clarence king. A rising took place in Yorkshire under Sir 
William Conyers, who assumed the name of " Robin of Redes- 
dale." Edward was unprepared for the danger, but marched 
northwards, while Lord Rivers and the Earl of Pembroke 
after raising forces in the south and west, advanced towards 
Northampton. They were repulsed by the rebels, and driven 
back on Banbury. A second engagement followed at Edge- 
cote, in Northamptonshire, in which the royal forces were 
defeated, and Pembroke was captured and executed. Edward 
himself fell into the hands of Archbishop Neville, while the 
insurgents put to death his father-in-law, Lord Rivers. Warwick 
had hurried to England, but as he was not strong enough to 
depose Edward, he permitted the king's release. The result of 
the struggle was therefore indecisive. 

In r 4 7o disturbances broke out in Lincolnshire, with the 
connivance of Warwick and Clarence. Edward this time was 
not caught unprepared. He took the field in person, and 

he tec t f ebelIi ° n " ear Stamf ° rd in the fi S ht Wroro 

Field' W T"?S? reb6lS ' WaS known as " L °-coat 
Held. Warwick and Clarence found themselves without 

nCxi w '? France - Here ' throu e h the medi ^« 

of Louis XL, Warwick came to terms with his enemy Margaret 

be iZTV:rz H r ry vi - and a ma " ia S e - s «i3 

LourmrnLh P r g H *T "* ^ y ° U ^ Prince Ed ^d. 
vest o[ Fn., H ^/^ men ' and Warwick land «d in the 
west of England. Meanwhile Edward had gone north but 

^ Ho g l, r' W° n T the / r ° ngh0ld ° f the ^^51 fled 

Tow H e:td d pr o :iTd\im d kiS arenCe ^ ^ *"" ** 
4- The Fall of Warwick /»„,\ a 

SJttS T ™ -' - " : ~ * - 



Edward IV. 185 

absorbed all power. Louis XI. kept Warwick to his bargain 
qf hostility to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and this forced 
the latter, who wished to keep free from English domestic 
struggles, to take sides with Edward IV. In March, 147 1, 
Edward, who had obtained money and men from Charles, 
landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, where Henry IV. had 
landed, and to win adherents he proclaimed that he only came 
to regain the duchy of York. To gain entrance into York he 
ordered his men to cheer for King Henry and Prince Edward. 
He then marched into the Midlands, and at the town of Warwick 
he reassumed the title of king. Outside Warwick he met his 
brother Clarence at the head of an army. Clarence had for 
some time chafed at the supremacy of the Nevilles, and the 
restoration of Henry had destroyed the prospect of succeeding 
to the throne, which Warwick had held out to him. He there- 
fore deserted to Edward's side, and with him went a large 
number of adherents. Edward then advanced to London and 
relegated Henry to the Tower. Meanwhile Warwick had 
marched towards London as far as Barnet, and Edward, 
therefore, left the capital to meet him. After a desperate 
encounter Warwick and his brother Montagu were defeated 
and slain. 

On the same day as the battle of Barnet, Margaret and 
Prince Edward landed at Weymouth, and once more rallied 
the Lancastrians to her standard. Edward, after some hesita- 
tion as to the line of march which Margaret would follow, 
started westwards, and after a long pursuit caught up the 
Lancastrians at Tewkesbury. The insurgents were worn out 
by long marches, and offered only a feeble resistance. Prince 
Edward was killed, and Margaret fell into the hands of her 
enemy. Edward returned in triumph to London, and the 
same night the unhappy Henry was put to death. 

With Henry VI. and his son Edward ended the legitimate 
male line of John of Gaunt. On the line of descendants 
which sprang from the latter's union with Catherine Swynford 
the civil wars had told disastrously. Edmund Beaufort, grand- 
son of John of Gaunt, the minister and general of Henry VI., 



186 Edward IV. 

had been killed at the first battle of St. Albans (1455), and of 
his three sons, Henry, Duke of Somerset, had been beheaded 
in 1464, John had been killed at Tewkesbury, and Edmund 
was beheaded after the battle. The line of Beaufort thus 
ended in Margaret, who had married Edmund Tudor, Earl 
of Richmond, and her son Henry, the future Henry VII., 
now a boy of twelve, was in exile at the Court of the Duke 
of Brittany. For the present, Edward IV. felt himself secure 
against any Lancastrian claims. 

5. The War with France (1475). — Edward's restoration 
had been largely due to the timely help of Charles the Bold, 
and justly proud as he was of his military skill, he gladly 
undertook to prosecute the quarrel of Burgundy with Louis XL 
Throughout his reign he had been nominally at war with 
Louis, although truces had staved off serious fighting, and now 
that he was free from domestic troubles, he sought an oppor- 
tunity to punish Louis for helping Warwick and Margaret, in 
1470, to dislodge him from the throne. Charles the Bold 
undertook to help Edward to recover the kingdom of France 
in return for territorial cessions in France, and a recognition 
of his independence of the French Crown. In 1475 Edward, 
with a large army splendidly equipped, landed at Calais, and, 
if Charles had been in a position to help the English, Louis XL 
would have been in serious danger. But Charles was already 
entangled in an expedition in Germany, and Louis, who was 
the wiliest diplomatist in Europe, easily detached Edward from 
the Burgundian alliance by offering to negotiate. The two 
kings met on the bridge of Pecquigny on the Somme, near 
Amiens, and a treaty was agreed upon. By this a truce for 
seven years was arranged, and Louis agreed to pay to Edward 
75,000 crowns down and a pension of 50,000 paid annually. 
Margaret of Anjou was ransomed and retired to France. The 
English army returned home without striking a blow. 

6. The Fate of Clarence (1478).— In 1477 Charles the 
Bold succumbed to the enemies whom Louis raised up against 
him. His attack on the Duke of Lorraine led to his defeat at 
Nanci. This had an important influence on the fate of George 



Edward IV. 187 

Duke of Clarence. He had recently lost his wife, Isabel 
Neville, and he now came forward as a candidate for the hand 
of Mary, the heiress of Charles the Bold. Edward, who 
apparently had never forgiven his brother for his treachery, 
opposed the match. Clarence had also a feud with his brother 
Richard on the subject of the latter's marriage to Anne Neville, 
the widow of Prince Edward of Lancaster, and the two brothers 
had quarrelled over the division of the Warwick estates. 
Clarence seems to have acted with much imprudence, and 
Edward had him arrested. He was accused in Parliament in 
1478, and a bill of attainder was passed against him, which 
was followed by his execution. 

7. Last Years of Edward IV. — For the rest of the reign 
the domestic history of the country was uneventful. In 1480 
a quarrel between Edward and James III. of Scotland led to 
a Scottish raid into England. In 1482 Edward retaliated by 
sending an expedition under Richard of Gloucester to support 
the Duke of Albany, the brother of James III., as a claimant 
to the throne. Albany promised the cession of Berwick, and 
Gloucester successfully besieged and captured the town. 
James III. then came to terms with Edward. In 1482 
Louis XL, who had promised that the dauphin should marry 
Edward's daughter Elizabeth, repudiated his word, and be- 
trothed his son to Margaret, granddaughter of Charles the 
Bold. Edward died in April, 1483, before he had time to do 
more than threaten vengeance for the perfidy of Louis. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Towton 1461. 

Battles of Hedgeley and Hexham .... 1464. 

Rupture with Warwick 1469. 

Restoration of Henry VI I 47°« 

Battle of Barnet I47 1 - 

Battle of Tewkesbury I 47 I « 

Death of Henry VI I47 1 - 

Execution of Clarence ........ 1478- 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

EDWARD V. (1483); RICHARD III. (1483-1485). 

i. The Struggle for the Regency.— At the death of 
Edward IV. it seemed that, as far as the dynastic quarrel 
between the Houses of Lancaster and York was concerned, the 
victory lay wholly with the Yorkists. The claims of the 
legitimate line of John of Gaunt were inherited by the Kings 
of Castile and Portugal, the descendants of Catherine and 
Philippa, the daughters of John of Gaunt ; while the Beauforts 
were represented by Margaret Beaufort and her son, Henry 
Tudor, Earl of Richmond. Danger from Lancastrian rivalry 
therefore seemed almost extinct, and things would have re- 
mained in this condition had it not been for the fatal rivalries 
within the House of York itself, culminating in a series of brutal 
crimes, which alienated the nation and opened the way for 
Henry Tudor. 

The Court at the accession of Edward V., a boy of twelve, 
fell apart into two factions. On the one hand, the regency was 
claimed by the queen mother, Elizabeth Woodville, who was 
supported by her brother Anthony, Earl Rivers, and Sir Edward 
Woodville, and by her sons by her former marriage, Thomas 
Grey, Marquis of Dorset, and Lord Richard Grey. On the 
other hand, Edward IV. by his will had decided that his 
brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, should be Protector. 
Gloucester had already proved himself a statesman of marked 
abilities, and the dark stories, which connected him with the 
murder, in cold blood, of Prince Edward, after the battle of 
Tewkesbury, and with the death of Henry VI., do not seem to 
have lessened his popularity. He was supported by Henry 
Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and William, Lord Hastings. 
Edward V. was at Ludlow under the protection of his mother, 
and of Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey, and it was decided 
to bring him to London for his coronation. On the journey, 

188 



Edward V. and Richard III. 189 

Rivers and Grey were met by Gloucester at Northampton, and 
were arrested and sent to Pontefract Castle. The queen 
mother, on hearing the news, tooK sanctuary at Westminster, 
with her second son Richard, Duke of York. 

2. The Deposition of Edward V. — Shortly after reach- 
ing London the little king was conducted by Gloucester to the 
Tower, and to conceal his designs the duke fixed June 22 
for the coronation of his nephew, and June 25 for the sum- 
mons of Parliament. This gave him time to mature his plans, 
and to bring troops from the north. Finding that he could not 
count on the support of Hastings, he accused the latter at the 
council of conspiring with the Woodvilles. Hastings was 
immediately arrested, and executed the same day. Three days 
later Gloucester, through the intervention of Cardinal Bourchier, 
induced the queen mother to give up possession of Richard, 
Duke of York. This rendered him master of the situation, and 
on June 25 he threw off the mask. An irregular assembly of 
Lords and Commons met, and a document was laid before it 
insisting on the invalidity of the marriage of Edward IV. and 
Elizabeth Woodville. The rights of the Earl of Warwick, heir 
of Gloucester's elder brother Clarence, were declared barred 
by the attainder, and the Crown therefore devolved upon 
Gloucester. The assembly petitioned Gloucester to take the 
Crown, and after some show of reluctance the duke yielded to 
the wishes of the deputation which waited on him. On the 
following day he was publicly enthroned in Westminster Hall. 
About the same time Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey were 
executed at Pontefract, and the little king, with his brother, 
Richard of York, shortly after disappeared; the date and 
manner of their death are uncertain, but it would appear that 
they were murdered in the Tower in August, 1483. 

3. Buckingham's Conspiracy. — Richard's coronation, 
which took place on July 6, was followed by a progress 
through the country, during which Richard sought by every 
means in his power to ingratiate himself with his subjects. 
But in spite of the fact that the king was received everywhere 
with professions of loyalty, the insecurity of his position was 



1 90 Edward V. and Richard III, 

rendered apparent by the defection of his chief supporter the 
Duke of Buckingham. The causes of Buckingham's revolt are 
not clear, but it is possible that he was both dissatisfied with 
the rewards which Richard had given to him, and was secretly 
horrified at the crimes into which he had been implicitly 
dragged. It is certain that his final break with the king coin- 
cided, roughly, in date with the murder of the little princes in the 
ToWer. Buckingham was moreover of royal blood, for he could 
trace his descent from two sons of Edward III., John of Gaunt, 
and Thomas of Woodstock. His mind was worked upon by 
Morton, Bishop of Ely, who, after being imprisoned by Richard 
at the time of the execution of Hastings, had been committed 
to the care of Buckingham. Morton had been a Lancastrian, 
but had rallied to the Yorkists. He now saw an opportunity 
for a return to his earlier allegiance, and induced Buckingham 
to join in a conspiracy to place Henry of Richmond on the 
throne. The Yorkists were to be won over by a marriage 
between Henry and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV. 
The news of the death of Edward V. and Richard of York 
caused great popular indignation, and Morton hoped to over- 
throw Richard by an insurrection in England, backed by an 
expedition from Brittany, led by Henry himself. 

The conspiracy broke out in 1483, while Richard was in 
the midst of his progress through the north; but it failed 
through a combination of adverse circumstances. Richard 
had not yet alienated his subjects, and he had still powerful 
supporters. Buckingham, who had raised the standard of 
rebellion in Wales, failed to cross the Severn on account of 
the floods, and the junction with the rebels in South England 
was prevented. He was deserted by his followers, fled to 
Shropshire, and was betrayed to Richard. His execution 
followed immediately. The expedition of Henry of Richmond 
was frustrated by a storm which dispersed his fleet. Morton 
and several leaders of the conspiracy fled abroad. 

4. The Parliament of 1484.— Richard seemed now at 
the height of his power, and early in 1484 Parliament confirmed 
his title as king, and recognised his son Edward as heir to the 



Edward V. and Richard III. 191 

throne. Morton, Richmond, Dorset, and nearly a hundred 
others were declared attainted of treason. Some good laws 
were passed including an Act against Benevolences, an illegal 
tax invented by Edward IV. Richard's conduct showed that, 
in less tragic circumstances, he had the making of a constitutional 
king, and that he was prepared to make good the promises of 
reform with which he had begun his reign. But the death 
of his son Edward, so recently recognised by Parliament as 
his heir, was the first of a series of misfortunes which followed 
one another in rapid succession. 

5. Henry Tudor's Invasion (1485).— After the failure 
of his expedition, Henry had again taken refuge in Brittany, 
where he was joined by Dorset, Morton, and other friends. 
It was decided to make a second attempt, and Henry, to 
strengthen his position by detaching those Yorkists whom the 
murder of Edward V. had alienated from Richard, solemnly 
bound himself by oath to marry Elizabeth, daughter of Edward 
IV. Shortly after, however, he was driven from Brittany by 
the intrigues of Richard, and took refuge with Charles VIII., 
King of France. With a body of French troops, lent to him 
by the French king, Henry and his friends set out from 
Harfleur, in August, and landed at Milford Haven. His Welsh 
compatriots rallied to his standard, and he led his army by way 
of Shrewsbury and Lichfield to Bosworth. Here he was met 
by Richard at the head of the royal forces, which outnumbered 
Henry's army by two to one. But Richard could not count on 
the loyalty of his followers, and at the outset of the battle 
Richard's fate was sealed by the defection of Lord Stanley, 
Henry's stepfather, and by the refusal of the Earl of Northum- 
berland to render active assistance. Richard fell fighting, and 
the Crown, which had been beaten from his helmet during the 
struggle, was placed by Lord Stanley on the head of Henry. 

CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Richard of Gloucester made Protector . . . 1483. 

Deposition of Edward V 1483. 

Execution of Buckingham I 483- 

Battle of Bosworth 1485. 



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CHAPTER XXIV. 

HENRY VII. (1485- 1 509). 

I. Henry's Claim to the Throne. — Henry could claim 
connection with the English royal house in two ways. In the 
first place, his father, Edmund Tudor, was son of Catherine of 
France, by her union with Owen Tudor on the death of her 
former husband, Henry V. And in the second place, he 
inherited through his mother, Margaret Beaufort, the claims 
of the descendants of John of Gaunt by his mistress Catherine 
Swynford, claims which had been indirectly recognised by 
Parliament in 1397, when the Beauforts had been legitimated 
by statute. As the male line of the descendants of John of 
Gaunt by his first wife Blanche of Lancaster had ended with 
the death of Edward, son of Henry VI., at Tewkesbury, Henry 
Tudor inherited the Lancastrian claim. On the other hand, he 
had rivals who upheld the claims of the House of York, viz. 
(1) the three De la Poles, the sons of Elizabeth, sister of 
Edward IV. These were John, Earl of Lincoln, Edmund, 
Earl of Suffolk, and Richard ; (2) Edward, Earl of Warwick, 
son of the Duke of Clarence, executed by Edward IV., and 
his sister Margaret ; (3) Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. 
While the existence of these rivals made it impossible for 
Henry to put forward a strong hereditary claim, policy forbade 
him to base his rights on conquest. Henry's first Parliament 
therefore contented itself with the declaration that the in- 
heritance of the Crown belonged to him. Both Houses joined 
in petitioning him to marry Elizabeth of York, and the 
marriage took place early in i486. The king's title and 
marriage were confirmed at his request by Pope Innocent 

193 o 



194. Henry VII. 

VIII. The birth of a son, Arthur, to Henry and Elizabeth, 
seemed to offer a permanent settlement of troublesome 
dynastic questions. Meanwhile Henry carried out a policy 
of pacification, and the new reign began with a marked 
absence of the political executions, which had been the 
unhappy rule during the Wars of the Roses. 

2. The Conspiracies of Lord Lovel and Lambert 
Simnel. — Before Henry had been six months on the throne, 
Lord Lovel, the favourite of Richard III., had joined in a con- 
spiracy with the two Stafford brothers to waylay and capture 
him at York. This was frustrated, and Lovel, after hiding in 
Lancashire, fled to Margaret, sister of Edward IV. , and widow 
of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. At her Court a plan 
was concocted by Lovel, and sanctioned by Lincoln, to set up 
a Yorkist pretender in Ireland, where the House of York 
had strong partisans. Early in 1487 Lambert Simnel, the son 
of an organ builder, appeared in Ireland, claiming to be the 
Earl of Warwick, who was at this time imprisoned in the 
Tower. He was at once recognised by the Anglo- Irish barons 
and was crowned at Dublin. With an army, partly composed 
of 2000 German mercenaries, brought to Ireland by the Earl 
of Lincoln and paid for by Margaret, Lambert Simnel landed 
in Lancashire, and marched to Newark. At Stoke the rebels 
encountered the royal forces and were defeated. Lincoln was 
killed, and Lovel disappeared after the battle. Simnel was 
captured by Henry, who contemptuously made him a scullion 
in the royal kitchen. The Irish insurgents were pardoned on 
making their submission. 

3. The War in Brittany.— At the beginning of his 
reign Henry had striven to maintain the friendly relations with 
France, which the support given to him by Charles VIII. in 
1485 had created. But the attempt of the French king to 
acquire Brittany, the ancient ally of England, endangered 
the peace. The French invaded Brittany in 1487, besieged 
Duke Francis in Nantes, and although a truce was negotiated 
through the mediation of Henry, the struggle was soon 
renewed, and the French inflicted a crushing defeat on the 



Henry VII. 195 

Duke at St. Aubin. Duke Francis died shortly after, leaving 
his duchy to his daughter Anne, a child of twelve. Henry 
had endeavoured to keep out of the war, but he could not 
see Brittany, with its maritime resources, absorbed by France 
without some resistance on his part, and he therefore offered 
help to the Breton regency. A treaty was signed in 1489 by 
which Henry was to protect Brittany, and in return was to 
control the foreign policy of the duchy. Troops were sent 
over, and help was also expected from Maximilian, King of 
the Romans, and from Ferdinand of Aragon. Parliament 
voted Henry a large sum for the war. But the help from his 
foreign allies was not forthcoming, and as Henry shrank from 
an open rupture with France, the Duchess Anne submitted to 
the inevitable, and by her marriage with Charles VIII. brought 
her duchy to the inheritance of the French Crown (1491). 
English feeling, however, was now strongly roused, and in 
October, 1492, having obtained a further grant from Parlia- 
ment, Henry himself laid siege to Boulogne. But the expedi- 
tion was only a blind to conceal the defeat of his policy, and 
to enable him to retreat from a dangerous position. Negotia- 
tions with France were briskly kept going, and a fortnight after 
his arrival before Boulogne, peace was signed at Etaples. 
Mutual support was agreed on, and Charles promised Henry 
745,000 crowns for his expenses in the Breton troubles. 

4. Perkin Warbeck. — Henry's cautious attitude in deal- 
ing with France was largely due to the revival of the Yorkist 
danger in England. In 149 1 a Flemish youth, Perkin Warbeck, 
the servant of a Breton merchant, had appeared in Ireland, 
and had been prevailed on by the Yorkist partisans to come 
forward as Richard, Duke of York, son of Edward IV., whose 
fate as yet had never been clearly known. From Ireland 
Perkin went to the Court of Charles VIII., and being dis- 
missed by the French king, after the peace of Etaples, took 
refuge with Margaret of Burgundy, who received him as her 
nephew. Henry demanded that Perkin should be dismissed 
from Flanders, and when the Government of the young Arch- 
duke Philip declared that it could not interfere with the Court 



196 Henry VII. 

of the Duchess Margaret, Henry broke off all commercial 
relations with the Flemings, thus inflicting on them a heavy 
blow through the stoppage of their import of wool from 
England (1493). At the same time he tracked down the 
conspirators at home, and by the execution of the chamber- 
lain, Sir William Stanley, he checked the intrigues of the 
Yorkist at the English Court. About this time Perkin left 
Flanders with a small force, supplied by Margaret, and after a 
futile descent on the coast of Kent, proceeded first to Ireland 
and thence to Scotland. He was warmly received by the 
Scottish king, James IV., who gave him in marriage Lady 
Catherine Gordon, a lady of royal blood. An invasion of 
England was planned, Perkin agreeing to cede Berwick in 
return for Scottish help. The pretender accompanied the 
expedition, but as it only numbered 1400 men, and no English- 
men joined, the little force retreated across the border, after a 
campaign of only four days. As Perkin now found that his 
presence in Scotland was no longer welcome, he sailed with 
his wife to Ireland in 1497, and landed in Cork. News from 
England, however, soon drew him to make one more effort to 
win the English Crown. 

Parliament in 1497 had granted a large subsidy to Henry 
for the defence of the northern counties against the Scottish 
raid, and heavy taxation had provoked much discontent in the 
south and west. The Cornishmen, led by Thomas Flammock, 
a lawyer, and Michael Joseph, a blacksmith, revolted and set 
out to march on London. At Taunton they forced Lord 
Audley to join them, and under his guidance they pushed 
eastward by Salisbury and Winchester into Kent. At Black- 
heath the rebels were completely routed by the royal forces. 
Over 2000 were slain in battle ; those who submitted were 
treated with leniency by the king, and only the leaders, Audley, 
Flammock, and Michael Joseph were executed. Three months 
later Perkin landed in Cornwall, and being joined by 3000 
followers, laid siege to Exeter. Finding, however, that he had 
no hope of success, Perkin took sanctuary at Beaulieu in the 
New Forest, and surrendered to Henry on receiving a promise 



Henry VII. 197 

that his life would be spared. He made a full confession of 
the imposture he had practised for so long, and was only 
imprisoned in the Tower after he had made attempts to escape. 
In prison he communicated with the captive Earl of Warwick, 
and the two formed a plan for flight. But the plot was dis- 
covered, and both Warwick and Warbeck were executed 
(1499). The charge against Warwick, who had been im 
prisoned by Henry for fourteen years, was the preposterous 
accusation of treason ; but the real reason for his death was 
that with him the male line of the House of York ended. 

5. Henry's Foreign Policy. — The three great kingdoms 
of the west, England, France, and Spain, had emerged from 
the Middle Ages consolidated at the expense of feudal anarchy, 
and ruled by sovereigns of absolutist tendencies. The marriage 
of Ferdinand of Aragon to Isabella of Castile had built up a 
strong monarchy in Spain, and had been followed by the 
expulsion of the Moors by the conquest of Granada, their last 
stronghold. At the same time, the discovery of the new 
world by Columbus, in 1492, opened to Spain a vast prospect 
of power and wealth. The French Crown, meanwhile, had 
been strengthened by the annexation of Brittany, and by the 
definite cessation of the struggle with England, which had 
threatened her prosperity throughout the fifteenth century; 
and her king, Charles VIII., was determined to take advantage 
of his position to revive the claims of his house to the kingdom 
of Naples. His famous invasion of Italy, in 1494, profoundly 
disturbed European politics, and reacted on Henry's inter- 
national position, by making his alliance a most important 
political factor. The schemes of Charles VIII. caused the 
formation of a league against France between the Emperor 
Maximilian and the Spanish sovereigns, and Henry was invited 
to join. Henry had been bitterly offended by Maximilian's 
patronage of Warbeck, and the refusal of Maximilian, on 
behalf of his son, Duke Philip, to put pressure on Margaret of 
Burgundy had caused, as we saw above, the rupture of all 
commercial relations with the Netherlands. Since then, how- 
ever, Warbeck had withdrawn, and commercial peace had 



198 Henry VII. 

been restored by the Intercursus Magnus of 1496, guaranteeing 
freedom of trade between the two countries. Hence the trad- 
ing interests of England naturally drew Henry to the anti- 
French side, in spite of the troublesome policy of Maximilian, 
who continued to count on the ultimate success of Warbeck. 
A marriage was projected between Prince Arthur of England, 
Henry's eldest son, and Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and, in return for the alliance, Henry joined the 
league in 1496. No hostilities, however, followed between 
England and France, for Henry was determined to get every 
advantage from his position without incurring the risks and 
expense of fighting. On the death of Charles VIII., in 1498, 
Henry therefore renewed the Treaty of Etaples with the new 
king, Louis XII., and shortly after Spain and Philip of Flanders 
came to terms with France. 

The marriage between Prince Arthur and Catherine was 
solemnised in 1501, but the young prince died a few months 
later, and Henry, to avoid the restitution of Catherine's 
dowry, agreed that she should marry his second son, Henry. 
For this a dispensation was obtained from Pope Julius II. 
The friendship of Spain was thus secured for a time, and in 
1502 Ferdinand assisted in the restoration of friendly relations 
with Scotland, by promoting a marriage between James IV. and 
Henry's eldest daughter Margaret. In the following year 
Henry's queen died, and the king at once set on foot various 
marriage schemes on his own behalf; but nothing had been 
arranged when Henry himself died in 1509. 

6. Henry's Home Policy. — The government of Henry 
VII. was not in the modern sense a constitutional one. 
Parliament retained in theory its ancient powers, but it was 
seldom summoned after Henry had firmly established himself 
on the throne. During the last thirteen years of the reign 
there were no regular Parliamentary grants. Money was 
raised instead by discreditable means. Payments were exacted 
from officers in Church and State, and the machinery of justice 
was perverted to suit those who were wealthy enough to pay. 
Henry's chief agents were Empson and Dudley, who were 



Henry VII. 199 

detested for their unscrupulous manipulation of the royal rights. 
By extortions of various kinds they enabled Henry to amass a 
treasure of ,£1,800,000. 

It was inevitable that the movement from mediaeval con- 
stitutional government towards absolutism, which had begun 
under the Yorkists, should be carried further under Henry VII. 
After years of anarchy and confusion under Henry VI., the 
nation required above all things a strong Government. The 
rising middle classes, absorbed in trading pursuits, looked 
with approval on the extinction of dynastic rivalries, and were 
prepared to sacrifice much of the substance of liberty in return 
for a guarantee of national peace. Henry VII., backed by 
Morton, at one time Bishop of Ely, and later on Archbishop of 
Canterbury, persistently aimed at the repression of feudal dis- 
order. In 1487 a statute was passed which created a special 
court, consisting of the chancellor, treasurer, and five others, 
empowered to put down livery and maintenance, riots and 
unlawful assemblies. A spurious feudalism had arisen through 
the practice, by which a great lord kept a large body of re- 
tainers, who wore his badge or " livery " while he " maintained " 
their quarrels in the law courts by overawing the royal judges. 
Henry showed that he would not tolerate this practice, even in 
the case of his chief supporters, and his trusted friend, the 
Earl of Oxford, was fined £15,000 for receiving the king at 
Hedingham Castle at the head of a body of retainers wearing 
the De Vere livery. 

Apart from measures aimed at strengthening the adminis- 
tration, Henry's reign is not remarkable for its legislation. 
Henry, in fact, realised that the country wanted strong govern- 
ment and not legislative changes. Parliament had failed 
completely during the Civil Wars to effect any permanent 
settlement, and the Crown had of necessity become the only 
safeguard against disorder. Hence the Tudor despotism was 
on the whole a popular one, resting not on a standing army or 
the unlimited right of taxation, but on the widespread belief 
that national security from external and internal dangers re- 
quired a despotic ruler. Cold, cautious, and unlovable as he 



200 Henry VII. 

was, Henry responded to the wants o\ the nation, and gave to 
England peace at home, while he forced the great monarchies 
of France and Spain to recognise that England could throw the 
weight o( her influence with considerable effect into the scales 
of European politics. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Stoke 1487. 

Invasion of Brittany 1489. 

Treaty of Etaples 1492. 

Cornish rebels defeated at Blackheath . . 1497. 

Warbeck captured J 497« 



CHAPTER XXV. 

HENRY VIII. ( 1 509-1547). 

I. Character of Henry VIII. — The successor to the crafty 
Henry VII. was a splendid youth of eighteen, endowed with 
great qualities, both of mind and body, of untiring activity, 
skilled in all the pastimes of chivalry, and at the same time a 
scholar and a musician. The young king seemed indeed to 
represent in his person both the glories and the evils of the 
Renaissance, the splendour of its achievement in the develop- 
ment of men's intellectual and artistic powers, together with 
the heartless gratification of the basest passions. The ideals 
of Middle Ages were fast perishing before a growing luxury 
and self-indulgence, and it was inevitable that a prince, who 
impersonated his age as Henry VIII. did, should come into 
collision with the system which, with whatever failures, had 
upheld the virtues of purity and self-restraint, and of duties 
between man and man more imperative than the claims of 
self-interest. Ambassadors at the English Court, such as the 
Venetian Giustiani, delighted to dwell in their reports on the 
young Henry's accomplishments and personal attractions, his 
handsome form and dazzling attire, and his knowledge of 
Latin and other languages. But beneath this brave outward 
show lay a temper, swayed at times by passions, but unswerv- 
ingly self-centred and self-contained. As the trappings of 
youth dropped away, and the restraints of morality and religion 
were laid aside, Henry's true character — brutal, imperious, 
sensual — stood revealed, and the reign, which had opened so 
joyously, closed on a scene of religious and social discontent. 
2. Foreign Affairs. — The young king from the first was 




FRANCE 

to illustrate 

Anglo-French relations 
from 1453 to 1789. 

English Miles 

20 40 60 80 IOO 120 140 l60 l8o 






Walker & Cockerell se. 



Henry VIII. 203 

bent on a strong policy at home and abroad. He signalised 
his accession by the arrest of his father's unpopular ministers, 
Empson and Dudley, and after an imprisonment in the Tower, 
they were executed on the trumped-up charge of having con- 
spired to seize and murder Henry on the death of his father. 
In other respects Henry made few changes in the ministry, and 
continued to rely on Henry VII. 's trusted servants, Archbishop 
Warham, Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Fox, Bishop 
of Winchester. Thomas Wolsey, who had been introduced to 
political life by Fox, was as yet only almoner to the king, but 
was already known for his skill in diplomacy, and Henry's 
intervention in foreign politics gave Wolsey the opportunity 
for making himself indispensable to the king. 

In 15 1 1 Henry joined the Holy League, which had been 
formed by Pope Julius II., with the support of the Emperor 
Maximilian, Ferdinand of Spain, and the Venetian Republic, 
in order to expel the French from Italy. A separate treaty 
was signed between Henry and Ferdinand by which a joint 
attack on the south of France was planned. In 151 2 a force 
was sent under the Marquis of Dorset to Spain, but after three 
months of waiting for the help which Ferdinand had promised, 
it was decided, without order from home, to return to England. 
Henry was much disappointed by the failure of an expedition 
which had been carefully planned, and decided in 15 13 to take 
the field in person. Advancing from Calais, he joined his 
army which was besieging Terouenne. A French force which 
came to relieve the town was defeated, and the engagement, on 
account of the precipitate flight of the enemy, was named " the 
Battle of the Spurs." Shortly after Terouenne surrendered, and 
a week later Tournay opened its gates. Neither of the towns 
was of real importance to Henry, whose proper line of attack 
was to march on Paris, and their capture only played into the 
hands of Maximilian, who, as ruler of Artois, was glad to see 
the French position weakened. 

In England events of* greater importance were in progress. 
In spite of the fact that he had married Henry's sister, James 
IV. of Scotland took advantage of Henry's absence to invade 



2o 4 Henry VIII. 

England. The defence was organised by Queen Catherine, 
and the chief command was given to the Earl of Surrey, who 
advanced with 30,000 men to attack the Scots. He found 
them strongly posted on Flodden Edge, an offshoot of the 
Cheviots. As the Scots could not be attacked, Surrey drew 
them from their position by cutting off their retreat to the 
north, and in the battle which followed they were crushingly 
defeated. The greater part of the Scottish nobility fell on the 
field, and James himself was amongst the slain. James IV. 
was succeeded by his infant son, James V., and Margaret, 
Henry's sister, became regent. This, together with the fact 
that Henry had realised that in attacking France he was only 
securing the interests of Maximilian and Ferdinand, made 
peace advisable. Wolsey secretly negotiated a treaty with 
France, and it was arranged that Henry's younger sister Mary 
should marry Louis XII. Wolsey was rewarded for his ser- 
vices with the Bishoprics of Tournay and Lincoln, and in 15 14 
he became Archbishop of York. In 1515 Leo X. raised 
Wolsey, at Henry's request, to the dignity of cardinal, and in 
1517 made him papal legate in England. 

3. Wolsey and the Balance of Power. — The death of 
Louis XII. in 1515, and of Ferdinand of Aragon in 15 16, 
brought about the accession of two sovereigns — Francis I. of 
France, and of Charles I. of Spain, who in 15 19 became 
Emperor as Charles V. The rivalry of these monarchs kept 
Europe in a turmoil for thirty years. Out of this rivalry the 
idea of the balance of power emerged, and English statesmen, 
of whom Wolsey was the first, grasped the fact that England 
no longer had a hereditary enemy in France and a hereditary 
friend in Spain, and that her true policy was to take advantage 
of her position as the " tongue of the balance " to play off 
France against Spain. Matters were, however, complicated 
by the personal ambitions of Henry and Wolsey, for the 
former on the death of Maximilian in 15 19 came forward as 
a candidate for the Empire, and his successful rival, Charles V., 
held out to Wolsey on two occasions, when the Papal See was 
vacant, hopes of becoming Pope. 



Henry VIII. 205 

In 1520 war was impending between the young Emperor 
Charles and Francis, who had also put in a claim to be elected 
emperor. Both competed for the support of England, and 
Wolsey advised Henry to maintain a balancing policy. He 
therefore arranged the famous meeting, known from its splen- 
dour as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, at which Henry and 
Francis met with unbounded cordiality. This was followed a 
month later by a meeting at Gravelines between the emperor 
and Henry. Wolsey, however, found it impossible to maintain 
the position of mediator, and Henry returned to the traditional 
pro-Spanish policy, and in 1522 declared war against France. 

Henry's part in the struggle between Charles V. and 
Francis was inglorious in the field, and was accompanied by 
perfidious diplomatic measures. He had, in fact, no desire to 
see the success of either of the rival princes. In 1522 the 
Earl of Surrey was sent with an expedition to ravage Picardy, 
but beyond this nothing was effected. The war, on the other 
hand, necessitated heavy taxation, and Henry, who since 15 15 
had ruled without, summoning Parliament, was forced to 
assemble it in 1523. Wolsey as chancellor asked for 
^£800,000, and as the Commons showed signs of resistance, 
he appeared in person in the House, and insisted on com- 
pliance. The Speaker, Sir Thomas More, declared that the 
Commons would only debate the matter amongst themselves, 
and in the end Wolsey had to be contented with half the 
amount. His attempt to supplement this in 1525 by a forced 
loan, the " Amicable Loan," provoked such resistance that the 
demand was dropped. Meanwhile the war had gone on in 
France. In 1523 an English force under the Duke of Suffolk 
advanced to within a few miles of Paris, but was driven to 
retreat on account of the cold, and for the second time in the 
reign an English army returned home without orders. With 
the capture of Francis by the Spaniards at the battle of Pavia 
(1525), Henry's policy underwent a change, for he saw that 
the emperor had no intention of supporting the English 
demand for French territory. In 1525 a treaty of alliance 
with France was signed, and as soon as Francis was released 



zo6 Henry VIII. 

from captivity, Wolsey, in 1527, went over to negotiate a mar- 
riage alliance between Henry's daughter, Mary, and the second 
son of the French king. 

4. Henry's Divorce and the Fall of Wolsey.— It was 

at this period that the policy of England began to be definitely 
affected by the question of Henry's relations with his wife 
Catherine. From the first Henry had not been a faithful 
husband, and now that the queen had grown prematurely old, 
and, with the exception of one daughter, Mary, all the children 
of the marriage were dead, the future of the Tudor dynasty 
seemed precarious. Henry at first did not disclose to Wolsey 
all his designs, for the latter could not suspect that Henry 
would stoop to a marriage with such a person as the beautiful 
but notorious Anne Boleyn. Wolsey therefore was only 
informed of the project for a divorce, and was instructed to 
communicate with Francis I. on the subject, for Henry was 
anxious to win the support of the French king, because he 
saw that the emperor would never sanction a step which 
would degrade his aunt, Catherine, in the eyes of all Europe. 
Moreover, at this time the Pope, Clement VII., was completely 
in the power of Charles V., whose troops in 1527 had attacked 
and pillaged Rome, and kept the Pope practically a prisoner. 

England up to the time of Wyclif had been free from 
heresy, and, as we have seen, the Lollard movement had prac- 
tically died out by the middle of the fifteenth century. The 
number of prosecutions for heresy at the beginning of the 
sixteenth century was small, and as a rule the heretics were 
lightly punished if they acknowledged their errors. Nor was 
England much affected at first by the religious revolt in 
Germany, which began with Luther's denunciation of Indul- 
gences in 15 17, and ended with his repudiation of the chief 
doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. Summoned 
before the Diet of Worms in 15 21, Luther had refused to 
retract, and shortly after had been carried off to a place of 
security by his sovereign the Elector of Saxony. In answer to 
Luther's book, the "Babylonish Captivity," Henry in 1521 
dedicated to Leo. X. a defence of Catholic doctrine under the 



Henry VIII. 207 

title " Assertio Septem Sacramentomm," in which he strenu- 
ously upheld the authority of the Papacy. The royal contro- 
versialist was rewarded by the Pope with the title " Defender 
of the Faith." Neither Pope nor king could have foreseen 
that a few years later the champion of the Holy See would 
become its bitterest opponent. 

From the outset of the divorce suit Henry did not give 
Wolsey his entire confidence, and although the cardinal 
stooped to the lowest expedients to convince the king and 
Anne that he was loyal to their wishes, his influence over 
Henry was shaken as it became clear that the Pope could not 
yield to the outrageous demands put forward by the English 
agents. The position taken up by Catherine and maintained 
with touching dignity to the last was unassailable. The most 
that Clement VII. would concede was that a special Legate 
Campeggio should be sent to England to act with Wolsey in 
the trial of the case. But a delay of seven months followed 
the arrival of Campeggio in 1528, during which Catherine's 
enemies in vain tried, by isolating her from all her friends, to 
coerce her into acquiescence. At length, in May, 1529, the 
legatine court was opened and the king and queen were cited 
to appear before it. Catherine, after a touching prayer to 
Henry, before whom she knelt to plead for the rights of her- 
self and her daughter, appealed directly to the Pope. Her 
cause was also warmly upheld by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, 
in a. speech before the legates, which provoked an angry reply 
from the king. The trial dragged on into July, when Cam- 
peggio adjourned it, and on all sides it was understood that 
the proceedings had failed. 

The failure sounded the knell of Wolsey's fortunes. Anne 
Boleyn insisted that he should be disgraced, and Henry 
yielded. Wolsey was indicted on the charge of having in- 
curred the penalties of praemunire by exercising legatine juris- 
diction, although, of course, his acceptance of the legateship 
had been sanctioned by the king. He pleaded guilty, and 
surrendered all his property to Henry. Sir Thomas More 
became chancellor, after warning the king not to expect 



2 o8 Henry VIII. 

support from him in the divorce question. Wolsey retired 
to his archbishopric, but before he reached York the Boleyn 
party at Court, feeling unsafe while he lived, procured an 
order for his arrest on a charge of treason (November, 1530). 
Wolsey turned south, but on reaching Leicester Abbey, was 
too ill to go further. Just before his end he summed up the 
lesson of his own life in the famous saying, " If I had served 
God as diligently as I have done the king, He would not have 
given me over in my grey hairs." 

5. The Beginning of the Schism. — A week after the 
fall of Wolsey, Parliament was summoned, and, contrary to 
custom, this Parliament continued through seven sessions, and 
did not cease till the severance from Rome had been completed. 
During the seven years of its existence (15 29-1 5 36) it was the 
tool used by Henry to carry out the divorce, to coerce the 
clergy into surrendering the legislative rights of their order, 
and to establish the royal in the place of the papal supremacy. 
The king's chief agents throughout were Thomas Cromwell, a 
low-born adventurer, who had passed from Wolsey's service to 
that of the king, and Thomas Cranmer, who had recommended 
himself to the royal favour by suggesting that the king should 
take the opinions of the Universities of Europe as to the 
validity of his marriage. 

During the session of 1529 Acts were passed dealing with 
pluralities and clerical fees, but the two Convocations were the 
chief centres of interest. The great body of the clergy had 
steadily upheld Catherine's cause, and Henry therefore deter- 
mined to coerce them into obedience. On the ground that 
they were involved in the penalties of praemunire by acknow- 
ledging Wolsey's legatine authority, he wrung from the Con- 
vocations of Canterbury and York a fine of ;£i 18,800, and the 
incidental recognition of himself as " Protector, single and 
supreme lord, and, as far as the law of Christ allows, even 
supreme head" of the Church of England (1531). This 
arrangement was sanctioned by Parliament, and as the laity had 
also incurred the penalties of praemunire, the king, on the petition 
of the Commons, granted to his lay subjects a free pardon. 



Henry VIII. 209 

In 1532 the policy of terrorising the clergy and thus 
indirectly putting pressure on the Pope, was carried a step 
further. A petition, drawn up by Thomas Cromwell, was 
placed in the hands of the Commons to be presented by them 
to the king. It contained an attack on the canons passed by 
the clergy in Convocation, and on the administration of canon 
law in the ecclesiastical courts. Convocation, which at the 
time was engaged in discussing reforms, was required by 
Henry to answer these supposed complaints of the Commons, 
and the result was the " Answer of the Ordinaries," in which 
Convocation stated the clerical view of the grievances alleged 
against the Church. Henry insisted that the answer was " very 
slender," and in the end, taking the matter openly into his own 
hand, he compelled the clergy to accept three articles, generally 
known as the " Submission of the Clergy." In future, no new 
canon was to be put forward in Convocation without the king's 
license ; a committee of thirty-two was to revise the existing 
canons and abrogate those contrary to the royal prerogative ; 
and lastly, only those canons which were ratified by the king 
should stand good. The legislative powers of the Church were 
thus placed under the control of the State. 

In this same year the first Annates Act was passed, 
abolishing the payment of Firstfruits to the Pope, but ordering 
that this was not to come into force for a year. The Act was 
opposed in Parliament, and was forced through the Commons 
by the personal intervention of the king. The Submission 
of the Clergy and the Annates Act showed unmistakably the 
trend of the royal policy, and Sir Thomas More, who from 
the first had avoided all approval of the divorce, now resigned 
the chancellorship. 

6. The Rupture with Rome (1534)- — The policy of 
Henry from the beginning of the divorce trouble is difficult to 
follow, on account of its dishonest and tortuous character. 
Thus he posed as the protector of the English Church, while 
he secretly encouraged the attacks of heretics. He pretended 
that his action against the Pope was the result of pressure from 
Parliament, whereas it was only through his insistence that 

p 



2io Henry VIII. 

the Acts against the Church were forced through Parliament. 
He insisted that his treatment of Catherine was due to con- 
scientious scruples, and yet he allowed Anne Boleyn to be 
treated with almost royal honours at Court. He had himself 
invoked the jurisdiction of the Pope to settle the validity of 
his marriage, but his agents at Rome were now using every 
means in their power to prevent Clement VII. delivering the 
judgment, which it was foreseen must be unfavourable to the 
king. His scandalous treatment of Catherine caused indig- 
nation throughout the country, and forced the Pope to write 
a letter of grave remonstrance, ordering Henry to take back 
his lawful wife, pending the decision of the case, and 
threatening him with excommunication in case of non- 
compliance. ___^ — » 

Henry had no intention of yielding to the wishes of either 
the Pope or his subjects, and the death of Archbishop Warham 
enabled him to strengthen his position by raising his com- 
pliant agent, Cranmer, to the primacy. In spite of the tension 
between the king and Pope, the Bulls of confirmation were 
issued, and early in 1533 Cranmer was consecrated. He took 
the customary oath of obedience to the Holy See, but privately 
made a protest, reserving to himself freedom of action. Mean- 
while, probably in January, 1533, Henry had secretly married 
Anne, and it was necessary to bring the divorce proceedings 
to a summary close. Under royal pressure Convocation 
declared against the dispensing power of the Pope, and Parlia- 
ment was induced to pass the " Statute for the Restraint of 
Appeals." This ordered that all cases, matrimonial, testa- 
mentary, etc., whether relating to the king or his subjects, 
should be decided by the English ecclesiastical courts in spite 
of any prohibition from the Pope. Under this Act, Cranmer, in 
Ma y> i533> set U P his court at Dunstable, and cited Catherine 
to appear. The queen, as Cranmer hoped, refused to recog- 
nise his jurisdiction, and the archbishop then pronounced her 
marriage with Henry to be invalid. This was followed by 
the coronation of Anne amid signs of popular disapproval. 
Catherine was by proclamation deprived of the title of queen, 



Henry VIII. 211 

and at the same time she was forbidden to communicate with 
her daughter Mary. 

The news of Cranmer's judgment forced Clement VII. to 
take decisive action in order to vindicate public morality and 
the authority of the Holy See. In July, 1533, the Pope issued 
a Brief, nullifying the proceedings at Dunstable, and declaring 
that Henry had incurred excommunication. This would come 
into force unless the king submitted before the end of three 
months. Henry, however, had now gone too far to draw back, 
and the birth of a daughter, Elizabeth, in September, 1533, 
was followed by a series of acts completing the Schism. In 
1534, Parliament made the prohibition of Annates absolute, 
and provision was made for the appointment of bishops by 
conge d'elire. In future, when a vacancy occurred, the cathedral 
chapter was to receive a " license to elect " the person named 
in the accompanying royal letter, and if the chapter failed to 
do so, its members incurred the penalties of praemunire. Peter's 
Pence and papal dispensations were abolished, and the right 
of holding visitations of monasteries was given to the Crown. 
The "Submission of the Clergy" of 1532 was formally ratified 
by Parliament, and the ratifying statute ordered that the Crown 
should be in all cases the ultimate judge of appeals. By the 
Succession Act, the marriage with Catherine was declared 
invalid, and the Crown was settled on Henry's children by 
Anne Boleyn. The Convocations of Canterbury and York 
expressly repudiated the Pope's authority, and the edifice of 
the royal despotism in religious matters was- completed by 
the Act of Supremacy, which affirmed that the king should be 
accepted as " the only supreme head in earth of the Church of 
England." 

7. The Martyrdoms. — Although Parliament and Con- 
vocation had yielded, there were individuals too noble to 
acquiesce in such cowardly subservience to the king's will. 
The Act of Succession had ordered an oath to be taken to 
the Succession by all persons of legal age, and this was now 
used as an instrument to enforce compliance with the new 
order of things. The monks of the London Charterhouse 



212 Henry VIII. 

had been allowed, on account of their protests, to take the 
oath "as far as was lawful"; but Cromwell, who had been 
made the royal vicar-general, now summoned the prior 
Houghton and two other priors of the Order to acknowledge 
the royal supremacy. They refused, and, on being condemned 
as traitors, the sentence was carried out with unexampled 
brutality. This was followed by proceedings against Fisher 
and More, both of whom had incurred the king's resentment 
for refusing to condone his immoral conduct. Although they 
were willing to acknowledge Elizabeth as heir to the throne, 
they could not be induced to accept the royal supremacy, or to 
deny the validity of Henry's marriage with Catherine. Henry 
was determined to stamp out resistance. Bishop Fisher, there- 
fore, the friend and adviser of the saintly Margaret Beaufort, 
Henry's grandmother, and Thomas More, Henry's trusted 
companion and counsellor, were sacrificed to his imperious 
will, and suffered the penalty of treason on Tower Hill. 

8. The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536). — With 
rare exceptions, the opponents of Henry's ecclesiastical revolt 
tion had been furnished by the regular clergy, especially the 
Friars Observant and the Carthusians. Henry and Cromwell 
saw clearly that the monasteries were " garrisons of the Pope," 
and prepared to act accordingly. A general visitation of the 
religious houses was ordered, and a number of visitors were 
appointed, chief amongst whom were Legh, Lay ton, Ap Rice, 
and London. The first two rapidly visited the southern 
monasteries, and reported adversely on the conduct of the 
monks and on their management of monastic property. They 
then examined the monasteries in Yorkshire and the north, 
and forwarded to Cromwell scandalous accusations against 
the religious houses. In the second half of 1535, a large 
number of monasteries were visited by the commissioners, 
and the object of the visitation was revealed in the session 
of 1536. The commissioners had well understood that a 
favourable report was not desired by Cromwell, and in their 
hurried visitation had made no attempt to sift the truth of the 
foul tales to which they greedily listened. It is certain that 



Henry VIII. 213 



some of the monasteries had decayed financially, and had 
fallen into a lax state of discipline, but of any general 
justification for the sweeping charges brought against the 
monks and nuns, there is none, beyond the prejudiced 
reports of the visitors, against some of whom charges of grave 
misconduct were subsequently proved. Nevertheless, on the 
strength of these reports, or " comperta," as they were called, 
a bill was laid before Parliament for the suppression of all 
religious houses whose income was less than ^200. Parlia- 
ment, according to the preamble of the Act, made no attempt to 
verify the accusations, but, as usual, gave way before the royal 
will. At the same time, the Act admitted that in the larger 
monasteries religion was "right well kept." This, however, 
did not save them, for during the next three years such 
pressure, on one pretext or another, was put on them that 
they were terrified into surrender. Those that held out were 
abolished by Parliament in 1539. 

9. The Pilgrimage of Grace and its Results (1536)- 
— With the suppression of the lesser monasteries, the last session 
of the Reformation Parliament ended. Early in the year 1536, 
Catherine of Aragon had died, and both Henry and Anne had 
shown an unseemly pleasure at the news. But Henry was 
already tired of Anne, and anxious to marry his new favourite, 
Jane Seymour. Four months after Catherine's death, terrible 
charges were brought against Anne, and she was beheaded on 
Tower Green. On the following day, Henry married Jane 
Seymour. 

Meanwhile the dissolution of the monasteries had given 
rise to violent disturbances, and Lincolnshire and the north 
rose in rebellion. The insurgents, while professing loyalty to 
Henry, demanded the dismissal of Cromwell, the punishment 
of heretical bishops like Cranmer and Latimer, and the restora- 
tion of the papal authority. The rebellion in Lincolnshire soon 
collapsed, but that in Yorkshire, which was headed by Robert 
Aske, and took the name of the " Pilgrimage of Grace," was 
far more formidable. The rebels marched as far as the river 
Don, where they were met by the Duke of Norfolk, who saw 



2i 4 Henry VIII. 

himself compelled to offer a truce, by which it was agreed that 
the rebels should send two delegates to lay their case before 
the king. Henry was forced to temporize, and Norfolk was 
authorized to promise the summons of a free Parliament to be 
held in the north for the discussion of all complaints. Aske 
and his followers, trusting in the royal promise of pardon, at 
once submitted. As soon as the insurgents had disbanded, 
Henry threw off the mask, and the insurgents, seeing that the 
promises made to them would not be kept, again rose in 
resistance (1537). But the spirit of the movement had been 
broken, and the Duke of Norfolk was able to stamp out 
opposition. All over the north the royal triumph was 
signalized by a series of butcheries under martial law. 
Aske had clung to the belief in the promises made by 
Henry, and had tried to prevent the renewal of the rebellion, 
but this did not save him from a charge of treason. He was 
executed, and with him perished Lord Darcy, Lord Hussey, 
four northern abbots, and a number of the leading gentry 
of the north. A special court, the Council of the North, was 
set up to coerce the disaffected districts. 

The crisis of 1536— 1537 had been a severe one, for if the 
insurgents had crossed the Don in 1536, Henry would have 
been forced to yield, and his throne might have been in 
danger. Affairs on the Continent were also in a critical 
state, for the long struggle between the emperor and Francis 
was drawing to a close, and it was, at least, possible that 
Charles V. and Francis I. might sink their political rivalries, 
and, at the bidding of the Pope, carry out a sentence of 
deposition against Henry. But the dangers in England had 
been successfully passed, and Henry's power seemed stronger 
than ever. The confiscation of church property was now 
pushed on rapidly, and the royal commissioners swept through 
the country, receiving the enforced surrender of monastic 
property. Resistance was treated as treason, and in 1539 
the mitred abbots of Reading, Glastonbury, and Colchester, 
who had nobly made a stand against the royal rapacity, were 
executed, after trials which were parodies of justice. By the 



Henry VIII. 215 

end of 1540, religious houses had ceased to exist. Meanwhile 
the royal commissioners had laid hands on the great shrines, 
such as that of Our Lady of Walsingham, which the piety of 
centuries had enriched. Waggon loads of gold and silver and 
other treasure were carried off from the shrine of St. Thomas 
of Canterbury, and the relics of the saint were contemptuously 
destroyed. 

The value of the immense mass of property in land and 
goods which fell into the royal hands cannot be accurately 
known. The annual income of the monasteries has been 
estimated at two millions of our present money. But only a 
small proportion of the proceeds of confiscation reached the 
royal treasury. The king was compelled to purchase support 
by lavish grants to his courtiers and ministers, and by sales 
of monastic lands to powerful nobles at rates far below their 
value. The ruins which still survive attest the splendour and 
beauty of the buildings so wantonly destroyed, but the loss 
to the arts and to literature, caused by the destruction of 
libraries and w r orks of art of every kind, cannot be estimated. 
A small portion of the confiscated property was restored to 
religious uses by the foundation of six new bishoprics, and 
something was spent on educational establishments at the 
Universities, and on fortifying the coast. But, as a rule, apart 
from the Crown, the class which profited by the confiscations 
was that of the "new men," the Russells, Pagets, Dudleys, 
Seymours, and others, who founded a new nobility, identified 
in interest with the policy of Henry VIII. The new landlords 
who took the place of the monks proved grasping in the 
treatment of their tenants, and the spread of enclosures for 
sheep-farming, with the consequent eviction of tenants, was 
a cause of great distress, and of social discontent. 

10. The Attainder of the Poles (1539). — The House 
of York was now represented by the Marquis of Exeter, whose 
mother was daughter of Edward IV, and by Margaret, 
Countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV., and sister of 
the Earl of Warwick, executed by Henry VII. in 1499. 
Margaret had married Sir Richard Pole, and her sons were 



216 Henry VIII. 

Lord Montague, Arthur, Geoffrey, and Reginald. The last 
had been a great favourite of Henry VIII., who had superin- 
tended the education, which had made him one of the foremost 
scholars of the day. But he had gone abroad in 1522, and 
when Henry asked for his opinion on the royal supremacy, he 
wrote his treatise " De Unitate Ecclesiastica " condemning 
Henry's policy. He was created a cardinal, and shortly after 
was made a legate. He became the centre of the opposition 
to Henry on the Continent, and the king, having failed to 
obtain the surrender of Pole by the emperor and Francis, 
visited his wrath on the cardinal's relations. Exeter was 
accused of plotting against the Tudor dynasty, and Geoffrey 
Pole, who was arrested, revealed to the Government that his 
brothers, Lord Montague and Lord Exeter, were in communica- 
tion with Cardinal Pole. The two noblemen were tried for 
treason and executed in 1539, while the aged Countess of 
Salisbury was attainted by Parliament and sent to the Tower. 
After two years in prison she was beheaded without a trial. 

11. The Bill of Six Articles (1539). — Henry's theo- 
logical position was liable to variations in accordance with his 
political needs. Two powerful parties had formed. One led 
by Cromwell, Cranmer, and Latimer, wished Henry to place 
himself at the head of a Continental anti-papal league, while 
the other, under the Duke of Norfolk, Gardiner, Bishop 
of Winchester, and Bonner, Bishop of London, wanted no 
doctrinal changes beyond the denial of the papal supremacy. 
In 1535, under the influence of Anne Boleyn, Henry had 
seemed willing to accept the Lutheran Confession of Augsburg, 
and in 1539 a controversial translation of the Bible, mainly the 
work of Tyndal, was ordered to be set up in all the churches. 
But a reaction set in after the Pilgrimage of Grace, and Norfolk 
brought the subject of religious differences before Parliament. 
The result was the Bill of Six Articles, affirming the doctrine 
of Transubstantiation, auricular Confession, Communion in one 
kind, celibacy of clergy, vows of chastity, and private Masses. 
The denial of the first article was ordered to be punished with 
death by burning. The law was severe, but in practice it was 



Henry VIII. 217 

not administered with severity, for the number of executions 
under it during the rest of the reign was only twenty-seven. 

12. The Fall of Cromwell (1540). — The Six Articles 
were a blow to Cromwell's influence ; but Henry was now a 
widower, for Queen Jane had died in 1537, after the birth of 
Prince Edward, and Cromwell, in order to commit Henry 
definitely to the Protestant side, negotiated a marriage between 
his master and Anne, sister of the Duke of Cleves. The king 
was married to Anne early in 1540, and soon after Cromwell 
was created Earl of Essex. The object of the match had 
been to strengthen the Protestant league against the emperor, 
of which the Duke of Cleves was an important member, and 
thus ward off the attack on England which Charles V. was 
planning. But the league came to terms with the emperor, 
and Henry, seeing that nothing could be obtained from the 
German Lutherans, determined to get rid of Anne, whose lack 
of beauty had disgusted him from the first. This implied a 
reversal of the policy upheld by Cromwell, who was therefore 
sacrificed to his enemies. He was arrested at the Council, and 
a bill of attainder was passed against him. Convocation 
declared the king's marriage null and void, and Cromwell was 
executed. The triumph of the conservative party was marked 
by a marriage between Henry and Catherine Howard, the 
beautiful niece of the Duke of Norfolk, and for the rest of 
the reign doctrinal changes were checked. The execution 
of the Queen Catherine in 1542 on charges of infidelity had 
no political influence. Henry shortly after married his last wife, 
Catherine Parr, who contrived to survive her royal husband. 

13. Wars with Scotland and France. — Since Flodden 
Field, England had not been seriously troubled in the north, 
but when James V. grew up he joined the French alliance, and 
married into the French royal house. In 1542 Henry replied 
to a Scottish border raid by ordering Norfolk to invade 
Scotland. James retaliated by sending a force into England, 
but the expedition was completely routed at Solway Moss. 
James died broken hearted at the news, leaving his kingdom 
to his infant daughter Mary. Henry thereupon proposed to 



2i 8 Henry VIII. 

unite the two kingdoms by a marriage between Mary and his 
son Edward. The marriage treaty was sanctioned by the 
Scottish Parliament; but through the influence of Cardinal 
Beaton, the leader of the French party in Scotland, it was set 
aside, and the French alliance was renewed. 

Meanwhile, in 1543, Henry had at last come to terms with 
the emperor, and concluded an alliance against Francis, thus 
reverting to the policy of his earlier days. In 1544 he led an 
expedition into France, and captured Boulogne, but only to 
find himself deserted by Charles, who made a separate peace 
with France at Crepy. In 1545 the French sent a great fleet 
to attack the south coast, but without success, and in the 
following year peace was made. Henry was to retain Boulogne 
for eight years. With Scotland the war had been waged with 
great bitterness. In 1544, Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, 
devastated the south-east and burnt Edinburgh ; but a second 
expedition was unsuccessful, and the English were defeated 
at Ancrum Muir. In 1546 a conspiracy to murder Cardinal 
Beaton, which was favoured by Henry, proved successful, and 
the murderers, supported by England, seized the Castle of 
St. Andrew's. The Scots w T ere therefore glad to be included 
in the peace made by France in 1546. 

These wars necessitated heavy taxation, for the confiscated 
wealth of the Church had all been squandered. A new 
expedient was adopted, the debasement of the currency, 
which shook the credit of the Government and inflicted a 
cruel wrong on the people. The coinage was debased to 
one third of its proper value, and the great rise in prices, 
which followed as a necessary consequence, pressed terribly 
on the labouring classes, who could not secure a corresponding 
rise in wages. 

On all sides, as the reign drew to a close, the evil results 
of Henry's policy made themselves felt. It was clear that the 
position he had taken up in religious matters could not be 
maintained. In the chaotic state of affairs, that which was 
allowed to be truth one year was punished as heresy in another. 
Lutherans, who upheld the doctrine of consubstantiation, were 



Henry VIII. 219 

burned side by side with Catholics, who upheld the Pope's 
authority. The country was seething with discontent and 
social disorder, and the Government struck wildly at every 
possible enemy. The last execution of Henry's reign was 
that of the Earl of Surrey, on the flimsy charge of treason, and 
his father, the Duke of Norfolk, would have shared the same 
fate, had not death prevented Henry from giving his assent to 
the bill of attainder. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Flodden 1513. 

Beginning of the Divorce Question .... 1522. 

Fall of Wolsey 1529. 

Act of Supremacy 1534. 

Pilgrimage of Grace I 536. 

Bill of Six Articles 1539. 

Fall of Cromwell 1540. 

Defeat of the Scots at Solway Moss . . . 1542. 



THE TUDOR DYNASTY. 
Henry VII., 1485-1509. 



I 
Henry VIII. 

I509-I547- 



I I 

Arthur. Margaret, 

m. James IV. 
of Scotland. 

James V., 
d. 1542. 

I 
Mary Queen 
of Scots, 
d. 1587. 

James VI. of Scotland, and I. of England. 



I 

Mary, 

m. Charles, Duke 

of Suffolk. 



Mary, 
553-1558. 



Elizabeth, 
1558-1603. 



Edward VI., 
I 547-i553- 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

EDWARD VI. (1547-1553). 

i. The Regency. — Henry VIII. had been empowered by 
Parliament to settle the succession by will, and he had named 
as his successors his son Edward, and, in the event of the 
latter dying without issue, his daughters Mary and Elizabeth. 
Failing these, the Crown was to devolve upon the descendants 
of his younger sister, Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, thus ignoring 
the claims of his elder sister, Margaret of Scotland. Edward 
VI., who was only nine years old at his accession, was a sickly 
and precocious child. He was incapable of showing feelings 
of affection or gratitude, but he was sincerely religious and 
devoted to the narrow Protestant creed, which he accepted. 
Like all the Tudors, he was admirably educated. 

Henry, in his will, had named eighteen executors as a Council 
of Regency, and had tried to secure the permanence of his 
religious settlement by balancing the two parties in the Council 
under the presidency of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. 
But this arrangement' was promptly upset, and Hertford was 
made Lord Protector, with the title of Duke of Somerset. His 
brother Thomas became Lord Seymour of Sudeley, and Dudley, 
son of the obnoxious minister of Henry VII., was made Earl 
of Warwick. Gardiner and the rest of the party opposed to 
religious changes were excluded from power. 

2. Somerset's Wars. — Somerset's foreign and domestic 
policies were equally disastrous. Finding that the Scots would 
not agree to the proposed marriage between their Queen 
Mary and King Edward, Somerset invaded Scotland in 1547. 
A decisive victory was gained over the Scots at Pinkie Cleugh, 



222 Edward VI. 

or Musselburgh, and the English advanced to Leith, pillaging as 
they went. But the military triumph was dearly bought, for 
it destroyed, for the time being, the English party in Scotland, 
and threw that country into the arms of Henry II., the new 
King of France. The young Queen of Scots was at once sent 
to France as the future bride of Francis, Henry's eldest son, 
while Scotland was ruled by the young queen's mother, Mary 
of Guise, in the interests of Catholicism and France. More- 
over, the war with Scotland was certain to bring about a 
renewal of the struggle with France, for which England was 
unprepared. 

3. Religious Changes. — Somerset was determined to 
push on the Reformation in the Protestant direction, and 
thus to abandon the quasi-orthodox position adopted by the Bill 
of Six Articles. The bishops were ordered to take out fresh 
commissions to exercise their functions, and royal injunctions 
were issued, ordering the destruction of shrines, religious 
images, and pictures. An Act, in T547, ordered the reception 
of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds, and in the same year 
another Act abolished all chantries, hospitals, religious guilds, 
and colleges, and gave their property to the Crown. An excep- 
tion was made in favour of the Universities, and of Eton and 
Winchester Colleges, and in the case of London, and a few other 
important towns, the guilds were spared. In 1548 the first 
Prayer-book of Edward VI. was completed, the result of the 
labours of Cranmer and other Protestant theologians. It was 
ratified in Parliament by the Act of Uniformity (1549). 
Another Act legalized the marriage of the clergy. 

In 1549 Parliament passed a bill of attainder against 
the Protector's brother, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, a man of 
bad character and overweening ambitions. He had married 
Catherine Parr, widow of Henry VIII., and on her death 
aspired to marry Elizabeth, the king's sister. Like the rest of 
the unscrupulous gang, who monopolized power, he sought to 
enrich himself at the public expense, but his personal am- 
bitions made him a danger to the Government, and in March 
he was attained as a traitor, and executed. 



Edward VI. 223 

4. The Rebellions of 1549.- — The spread of enclosures 
was an ancient grievance, but the evil had been greatly 
increased by the dissolution of the monasteries. The new 
landlords held views of their rights different from those which 
the monks had taken, and a bitter class hatred was the result 
of the new policy of extortionate rent-raising. Somerset had 
issued a commission to inquire into the matter, but it had only 
roused hopes doomed to be disappointed. In July, 1549, 
popular feeling in Norfolk vented itself in an attack on the 
system of enclosures, under the leadership of Robert Ket. 
The rebels entrenched themselves on Household Hill, over- 
looking Norwich, and after defeating the Earl of Northampton, 
captured the city. The Council then ordered the Earl of 
Warwick to attack them, and the rebels were defeated, losing 
3000 men. Meanwhile, in Devonshire and Cornwall, a rising 
had been caused by the introduction of the new service in 
English, which the people declared was " like a Christmas 
game." The rebels besieged Exeter, and in the articles which 
they sent to the Government, they demanded, among other 
things, the restoration of the Mass, the suppression of -the 
new version of the Bible, and the summons of Cardinal Pole 
to the Council. The movement was, however, badly directed, 
and no attempt was made to advance on London. The 
Government was thus able to bring up troops, mostly German 
mercenaries, and the insurgents, after a gallant resistance, 
were routed with heavy losses. The two rebellions, and the 
general failure of Somerset's policy, led to a crisis in the 
Government. The Council determined to get rid of the 
Protector, and after a vain appeal to the people, Somerset 
submitted. He was degraded from his high position, and 
sent to the Tower (October, 1549)- 

5. The Rule of Northumberland. — The fall of Somerset 
brought no increase of efficiency to the Government. Warwick, 
intent on the interests of his family, and caring little for religion, 
threw himself on the side of Protestantism in its extreme form, 
as the means which would lead him to power and wealth. 
The unprincipled councillors vied with each other in the 



224 Edward VI. 

greedy scramble for the spoils of the Church. Bishoprics 
were plundered of the lands which belonged to them, and 
bishops, like Gardiner, Bonner, Heath, and Day, who pro- 
tested against the sweeping innovations, were silenced by 
imprisonment and deprivation. The extreme reforming party 
now came steadily to the front, and with them the influence 
of the foreign reformers, like Bucer and Peter Martyr, who 
flocked into the country. Ridley, who became Bishop of 
London on the illegal deprivation of Bonner, was foremost 
in proclaiming extreme Calvinistic views, for Cranmer, as was 
his custom, drifted with the tide of events, uncertain of his 
own beliefs, and forced to condone acts of which he could 
not altogether approve. In 1550 an order of the Council, 
which reflected the views of Ridley and his followers, enjoined 
the removal of all altars, and the setting up of tables in their 
place. About the same time royal commissioners visited the 
University of Oxford, and plundered the college libraries and 
chapels, while other commissioners swept the country to carry 
off for the king's use all superfluous Church plate and vestments. 
Changes in the liturgy were the necessary consequence of the 
spread of extreme views, and a second Prayer-book was issued, 
differing more widely than the first had done from Catholic 
doctrine and practice. To enforce the new Prayer-book, a 
second Act of Uniformity was passed (1552). 

Since his fall from power Somerset had been released from 
the Tower and allowed to return to the Council • but he was 
dogged by the suspicions of Warwick, who could not feel safe 
while he was alive. He was arrested on a charge of con- 
spiring to murder Warwick, and was executed (January, 1552). 
Warwick, who had now become Duke of Northumberland, 
appeared all-powerful, and by marrying his son Guilford 
Dudley to Lady Jane Grey, the heiress of Mary, Duchess of 
Suffolk, he took a step towards securing the Crown for his 
family. The health of the young king was now rapidly failing, 
and Northumberland, therefore, suggested to Edward that, in 
order to preserve the Protestant religion, Mary must be set 
aside in favour of Lady Jane Grey. The boy-king yielded 



Edward VI 



225 



and signed a will passing over Mary and Elizabeth as illegiti- 
mate, and appointing Jane to be his successor. He died shortly 
afterwards. 

It is, of course, impossible to hold that Edward VI., a boy 
who died at the age of sixteen, was responsible for the crimes 
and profanities perpetrated by the statesmen and bishops who 
surrounded his throne. Even Henry VIII. had been appalled 
by the storm of blasphemy and evil doing which the innovations 
had let loose, and with a weak king, under the sway of advisers 
who saw in religious changes opportunities to enrich them- 
selves, it was natural that matters should grow worse. Honest 
Reformers like Bishop Latimer were compelled to denounce the 
moral evils which the changes had brought. And, indeed, the 
evils were written large across the face of the country. " To 
the Universities the Reformation had brought with it desolation. 
To the people of England it had brought misery and want. 
The once open hand was closed; the once open heart was 
hardened ; the ancient loyalty of man to man was exchanged 
for the scuffling of selfishness ; the change of faith had brought 
with it no increase of freedom, and less of charity. The 
prisons were crowded, as before, with sufferers for opinion, 
and the creed of a thousand years was made a crime by a 
doctrine of yesterday; monks and nuns wandered by hedge 
and highway, as missionaries of discontent, and pointed with 
bitter effect to the fruits of the new belief, which had been 
crimsoned in the blood of thousands of English peasants." x 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Pinkie 1547 

Fall of Somerset 1549, 

Acts of Uniformity 1549, 1552 

Warwick becomes Duke of Northumberland 1551 
Execution of Somerset 1552, 

1 Froude, " History of England," vol. v. p. 202. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
MARY (1553-1558)- 

1. Mary's Accession. — Northumberland's elaborate plans 
at once broke down, for the nation was in thorough sympathy 
with Mary, whose wrongs, like those of her mother, appealed 
to the loyalty of her subjects. Except amongst the extreme 
Protestants, headed by Cranmer and Ridley, and the personal 
adherents of Northumberland, Lady Jane, who was proclaimed 
queen by her father-in-law, had no real supporters. Northum- 
berland's efforts to seize Mary failed, and as soon as he left 
London to attack Mary the capital declared for the lawful 
queen. Northumberland was arrested at Cambridge, and 
made an abject appeal for mercy. Mary refused to listen to 
the suggestion of the Imperial Ambassador Renard that Lady 
Jane should be executed, and was even anxious to spare 
Northumberland. But this was impossible, and the duke, with 
two other leading conspirators, was executed. On the scaffold 
he declared his sincere belief in the Catholic faith, and urged 
his hearers to be reconciled to the Church. 

2. The Religious Difficulty. — From the first Mary 
avowed her intention of undoing the ecclesiastical revolution 
of the previous reign. Gardiner and the other deprived bishops 
were restored to their sees. Ridley, who had preached in 
favour of Lady Jane Grey, together with other Protestant 
leaders, was imprisoned. The foreign Protestants were invited 
to leave the kingdom, for the queen, as she declared in a 
proclamation to her subjects, was determined not to use 
compulsion in matters of religion till further counsel were 
taken by common consent. It seemed that even Cranmer, 

226 



Mary. 227 

the man who had pronounced the divorce of Mary's mother 
in 1533, and more recently had upheld the claim of Mary's 
rival, would be untouched; but a violent letter which he 
published, attacking the doctrine of the Mass, forced the 
Government to deal with him, and he was sent to the Tower 
charged with treason. 

Immediately after the coronation, Mary's first Parliament 
met to consider the restoration of religion. In many parts of 
the country the ancient services had been restored in spite of 
the Act of Uniformity, and the quarrels between the adherents 
of the ancient worship and of the Prayer-book of 1552 
threatened the public peace. To decide this and allied 
questions Parliament passed a series of Acts, repealing all 
laws of Edward VI. dealing with religion. This restored 
the Church to the position in which Henry VIII. had left it. 
At the same time the divorce of Catherine and Henry VIII. 
was declared invalid. For the time being the queen retained 
the title of Supreme Head of the Church, using the position to 
undo the work of the previous reign. Thus in 1554 the queen 
issued injunctions on clerical discipline, forbidding marriage 
of the clergy, and restoring a number of ceremonies which had 
been suppressed. A large number of married clergy, estimated 
at 2000, were expelled from their livings. Bishops who had 
married or had been irregularly appointed under Edward VI. 
were deprived. 

2. The Spanish Match and the Reconciliation with 
Rome. — It was impossible that Mary should rest contented 
with a mere restoration of the religious settlement of Henry 
VIII. Loyalty to her mother's honour as well as her own 
deepest convictions required that the schism which Henry's 
divorce had caused should be healed, and that the papal 
authority should be restored as the law of the land. At the 
beginning of her reign the Pope, Julius III., had appointed 
Cardinal Pole legate to England with the most ample powers, 
and at Rome the reconciliation of England to the Holy See 
was regarded as immediate. But the Emperor Charles V. 
understood more clearly the difficulties of Mary's position, 



228 Mary. 

and he advised her to proceed with caution. Moreover, the 
emperor was anxious to bring about a marriage between Mary 
and his son Philip, and this also was a matter likely to arouse 
opposition. Parliament urged the queen to marry, but not 
to choose a foreign husband, and the popular feeling against 
the Spanish marriage was skilfully fomented by the French 
Ambassador de Noailles. Unfortunately for herself and 
for her people opposition only raised in Mary the Tudor 
impatience of resistance, and the marriage was determined 
on. In order to settle one difficulty at the time, Charles V. 
detained Pole in the Netherlands until the marriage was 
solemnised. Although Mary carried her point, Gardiner in 
the marriage treaty secured terms which safeguarded English 
rights, and made Philip's position in England that of a nominal 
king. 

As soon as the treaty was published in 1554 rebellions 
broke out. The Duke of Suffolk, forgetful of the magnanimous 
treatment he and his family had received from Mary, tried to 
raise the Midlands, but was defeated and captured. Another 
rising in Devonshire, under Carew, was crushed, but the move- 
ment headed by Sir Thomas Wyatt at first seemed more 
formidable. With a considerable following of Kentish men 
and malcontent Londoners, he advanced on the capital. Mary, 
however, addressed the citizens in the Guildhall, and won 
them over by promising not to marry without the consent 
of Parliament. Wyatt therefore found no supporters in London, 
and, deserted by his followers, he was arrested. His failure 
sealed the fate of Lady Jane Grey, who was executed with her 
husband. Suffolk, Wyatt, and a few of the leading rebels were 
also put to death. How far Elizabeth was involved in the 
conspiracy is uncertain, but Mary refused to listen to the 
advice of the emperor that Elizabeth should be put to death. 
After a short detention in the Tower she was released. In 
J ul y> I 554 ) Philip arrived, and the marriage was solemnised at 
Winchester. 

Nothing now stood in the way of the fulfilment of Mary's 
most cherished aim, the restoration of the papal supremacy. 



Mary. 



229 



Pole was at last allowed by the emperor to leave for England. 
Before he left he had received from Julius III. powers to allow 
the holders of monastic property to retain their possessions. 
Parliament met in November, 1554. The attainder against 
Pole, passed under Henry VIII., was reversed, and shortly 
after the legate landed. The two Houses of Parliament were 
formally absolved from the guilt of heresy and schism. Con- 
vocation also made its peace with Rome. To ratify the pro- 
ceedings, Pole published a document confirming holders of 
confiscated Church property in their possessions without fear 
of ecclesiastical censure. This dispensation was inserted in 
the Act of Parliament which restored the papal supremacy, 
and declared that the title of Supreme Head of the Church 
never rightfully belonged to the Crown. The laws against 
heresy, passed under Henry IV. and Henry V., were 
revived. 

3. The Protestant Martyrs. — The terrible deeds of the 
four last years of Mary's reign have blackened her memory in 
the eyes of posterity, and attached to her name a cruel epithet. 
But these matters cannot be judged from the standpoint of 
to-day. For, in the first place, it is certain that Mary's dis- 
position, in spite of all the embittering experiences of her early 
life, did not lean to harshness. Her magnanimous treatment 
of the conspirators at the beginning of her reign, and of those 
who had harassed and humiliated her in the reigns of her father 
and brother, shows a loftiness of character without a parallel at 
the time. Of the integrity of her conduct, her kindness to her 
dependents and to the poor, there is ample proof. But in 
Mary's mind the Reformation was associated with outrages on 
all that she held sacred. It had begun with the rupture of the 
bond of marriage between her father and mother, which 
branded Mary herself as illegitimate. It had forced on the 
nation the denial of the papal authority, a belief which to 
Englishmen was coeval with their Christianity, and it had 
ended in an orgy of rapine and profanity under Edward VI. 
And, in the second place, Mary necessarily shared the universal 
belief of her time, that it was the duty of the civil power to put 



230 Mary. 

down erroneous doctrine, a belief held by Protestants as well 
as Catholics. Thus Calvin burnt the Socinian Servetus ; 
Cranmer sent Anabaptists to the stake, and in the code of 
ecclesiastical discipline, which he drew up under Edward VI., 
belief in Transubstantiation and the papal supremacy was to be 
punished as heresy. Two centuries had yet to pass before men 
could realise the cruel futility of religious persecution. More- 
over, recent writers have acquitted Gardiner and the bishops 
of personal cruelty in dealing with heretics, and justice has even 
been done to the rough but not unkindly Bonner, whom Fox, 
the Protestant martyrologist, specially holds up to obloquy. 
The persecution was mainly the act of the State, and it was the 
Council which urged on the bishops to proceed against heresy. 
And lastly, even if we blame Mary and her advisers, in justice 
it must be remembered that some at least of the Protestant 
martyrs were guilty of treason, and that others drew down upon 
themselves the penalties of heresy by the hideous profanity of 
their conduct. Men who parodied the beliefs of the majority 
of their fellow-countrymen inevitably provoked a spirit of 
reprisal, and involved the nobler spirits of their party in a 
common fate. Still, in spite of these considerations, the fact 
remains that an appalling number, variously estimated at from 
250 to 300 persons, perished under the Marian persecution, 
and however great the errors of opinion or conduct of the 
Protestant martyrs, no one would refuse a tribute of respect to 
the courage with which they met their terrible punishment. 

The persecution, which was almost confined to the dioceses 
of Canterbury, London, Norwich, and Chichester, began with 
the burning of John Rogers early in 1555, and the deaths by 
burning of Hooper, Ferrar, Ridley, and Latimer. Ninety 
other condemned heretics followed in rapid succession in the 
same year. The sufferers were in nearly every case men of 
humble circumstances, a fact which made their execution for 
purposes of example altogether useless. Cranmer's execution 
did not take place till 1556, and was preceded by a series of 
recantations, in which the weakness of character, so noticeable 
throughout his career, asserted itself. He had been formally 



Mary. 231 

degraded by order of the Pope, and was brought to Oxford to 
die. But the fear of death shook his constancy, and he signed 
at least six formal recantations of his errors. It was expected 
that he would repeat the abjuration of heresy at his execution ; 
but at the last moment his courage returned, and, repudiating 
all the documents which he had signed, he went without 
wavering to the stake. Cardinal Pole was at once appointed 
to the Archbishopric of Canterbury. 

4. The Loss of Calais. — Mary's life, except for the short 
period from her accession to her marriage, was full of bitter 
disappointments, and the gloom deepened as the reign drew to 
a close. The persecution of the Protestants continued, but the 
severity only produced greater bitterness, so that heresy and 
treason went hand in hand. Mary's domestic life was unhappy, 
for Philip was soon weary of his elderly wife, and the marriage 
was not blessed with the birth of an heir. Gardiner had died 
in 1555, and, except for Pole, the queen was without a real 
friend. In her loneliness she was assailed by the scurrilous 
libels of her Protestant subjects. Risings took place, backed 
by French help, but these were easily suppressed. Parliament, 
however, showed itself restive under the demand for money, 
for Mary had burdened her finances by refounding several 
religious houses. 

After an absence of eighteen months, Philip returned to 
England in 1557 to persuade Mary to join in the war with 
Henry II. of France, whose agents had been at the bottom 
of nearly every conspiracy against Mary. War was declared 
against France, and a large contingent of English troops, under 
the Earl of Pembroke, helped Philip's forces to win a great 
victory at St. Quentin, a town on the right bank of the Somme. 
But the French war involved Mary in a contest with Pope 
Paul IV., who, from jealousy of the Spanish power in South 
Italy, had placed himself under the protection of France. The 
Pope also disliked Pole, and decided to abrogate his legatine 
powers in spite of the entreaties of Mary, and to summon him 
to Rome to answer accusations against his orthodoxy. Mean- 
while a crowning disaster was inflicted on England by the loss 



232 Mary. 

of Calais, which was captured by the Duke of Guise in the first 
days of 1558. 

The loss of Calais dealt a severe blow to the queen, already 
enfeebled by ill-health and grievous disappointments. She 
died on November 17, and on the same day Cardinal Pole, 
the close associate of her triumph and of her failures, followed 
her to the grave. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Execution of Northumberland 1553. 

Wyatt's Rebellion 1554. 

Restoration of the Papal authority .... 1554. 

Execution of Cranmer 1556. 

Loss of Calais 1558. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ELIZABETH (1558-1603). 

i. Elizabeth's Character. — The death of Mary brought to 
the throne a princess, whose personality was destined to leave 
an indelible mark on the history of England. Elizabeth was 
now in her twenty-sixth year, but her youth had been spent in 
a confused tangle of intrigue and sedition, and she had learnt 
at an early age to walk warily amidst the dangers which 
surrounded her. Perfectly unscrupulous, a mistress of all the 
arts of dissimulation, caring little for religion, coarse in her 
language and conduct, capable of acts of passionate vindictive- 
ness, Elizabeth seems to have united in her person the worst 
traits of the imperious House of Tudor. Added to this she was 
inordinately vain, and while parsimonious in rewarding those 
who worked unceasingly for her greatness, she showered benefits 
on the throng of courtiers who knew how to win her favour by 
their flatteries. Highly educated and accomplished, she was, 
nevertheless, practically untouched by the marvellous intellectual 
movement of her reign. The great giants of literature, Shake- 
speare, Marlowe, Spenser, and Hooker, owed little to her patron- 
age. But with all her failings Elizabeth knew to an extraordinary 
degree how to direct and utilise the great forces of the time. 
Self-centred as she was, she had an instinctive knowledge of 
the political aspirations of her people. In her amazing activity 
of body and mind she summed up the leading characteristics 
of her age — its love of splendour, its daring, its patriotism, its 
exuberant vitality. She gathered around her a group of states- 
men, the two Cecils, Walsingham, Nicholas Bacon, who served 
her with untiring fidelity. But she was to the last the mistress of 

233 



234 Elizabeth. 

her own policy, although willing enough to throw the blame of 
her failures on the ministers, who groaned under the burden 
of her caprices and vacillations. We speak justly of her reign 
as the Elizabethan age, because for good or ill she shaped the 
destinies of England. 

2. The Settlement of Religion.— The most pressing 
question was the religious problem, and luckily for Elizabeth 
she was able to deal with it without fear of interference from 
abroad. France was on the verge of the wars between Hugue- 
nots and Catholics, which were to keep her distracted for forty 
years, and Philip of Spain had too many difficulties of his own 
to be able to afford to quarrel with England. The queen had 
conformed to the Catholic religion under Mary, but she soon 
showed in which direction her sympathies lay. The new coun- 
cillors whom she appointed were favourable to Protestantism, 
and although she still heard Mass, she forbade the elevation of 
the Host in her presence. The existing services were ordered 
to be retained, but only " until consultation might be had in 
Parliament." The bishops, therefore, with one exception, 
Oglethorpe of Carlisle, refused to officiate at her coronation. 
Parliament was summoned, and Convocation at once affirmed 
its adhesion to the Marian settlement. A series of Articles, 
declaring the belief of the clergy in Transubstantiation, the 
papal supremacy, and the sacrifice of the Mass, was passed 
unanimously and was also accepted by the two Universities. 
To parry the attack the Government ordered a number of 
public disputations, and meanwhile Parliament swept away 
the religious settlement of 1554. 

The Act of Supremacy (1559) declared that no foreign 
prince or prelate had any jurisdiction within the realm ; that 
all spiritual jurisdiction which could be lawfully exercised for 
the correction and punishment of heresies and schisms belonged 
to the Crown ; and that any person who maintained the papal 
authority should suffer the penalties of high treason for the 
third offence. The Act also empowered the queen to issue com- 
missions under the Great Seal to enforce her spiritual authority, 
and under this clause the Court of High Commission was set 



Elizabeth. 



2 35 



up. The appointment of bishops by conge oTelire was revived. 
By the Act of Uniformity (1559) the second Prayer-book of 
Edward VI., with certain modifications in the direction of 
orthodoxy, was authorised, and it was ordered that any clergy- 
man who used any other form should incur the penalty of 
imprisonment for life for the third offence. Annates, which 
Mary had surrendered, were revived and given to the Crown, 
and Mary's religious houses were confiscated for the benefit of 
the royal revenues. 

The religious changes were strenuously resisted by the 
bishops and by a number of lay peers, so that the Act of 
Uniformity only passed the Lords by a majority of three. The 
oath of Supremacy was therefore tendered to the bishops ; it 
was taken by Kitchin, Bishop of Llandaff, but the rest refused 
and were deprived of their sees. The example of the bishops 
was followed by the leading clergy in the dioceses and the two 
Universities with similar consequences. As to the number of 
the lesser clergy who conformed there is no precise information, 
but it appears to have been very considerable. 

To provide a hierarchy for the new Church, which was 
to rise from the ruins of the old, the Government nominated 
Matthew Parker and a number of others for election by conge 
d'elire. Parker was consecrated by Barlow, assisted by Hodgkin, 
Scory, and Coverdale. Of the first two, Barlow possibly, and 
Hodgkin certainly, had been consecrated according to the 
Catholic Pontifical, 1 but the Ordinal used for the consecration 
of Parker was that drawn up under Edward VI., and was 
expressly designed to exclude the doctrine of a sacrificial 
priesthood. This radical alteration of an ancient rite, apart 
from the irregularity of the circumstances attending the conse- 
cration of Parker, destroyed in the view of Catholics the validity 

1 The consecration of Barlow has been questioned on account of the 
absence of any record, together with the fact that it seems impossible to 
assign any day on which it could have taken place. Moreover, he held 
and expressed the view that consecration was not necessary. On the other 
hand, there is no proof that his position as a bishop was challenged by his 
contemporaries. 



236 Elizabeth. 

of the Orders of the reformed Church, and thus created an im- 
passable barrier between the ancient Church and that created 
by Elizabeth, her ministers, and Parliament. The Elizabethan 
settlement was moreover a compromise, and as such it gave no 
satisfaction either to those who remained faithful to Catholicism, 
or to those who wished the change of religion to carry with it 
far more sweeping modifications of doctrine and ritual. But 
it gradually won its way amongst those whose faith had been 
shaken by the violent oscillations of the previous reigns, and 
by the end of the century it had gained a large measure of 
support from the bulk of the nation. 

4. Peace with France (1559). — At her accession Eliza- 
beth found England still entangled in the war with France, 
which had resulted in the humiliating loss of Calais. Philip 
of Spain was deeply anxious to retain the friendship of England, 
for it secured to him a safe passage for his ships up the Channel 
and therefore access by sea to his dominions in the Netherlands. 
He had already offered to procure the Pope's dispensation to 
enable him to marry Elizabeth ; but the offer was rejected, both 
because Elizabeth had determined to remain independent, and 
because by recognising the validity of a papal dispensation she 
would be implicitly declaring herself illegitimate. Shortly after 
a peace conference opened at Cateau Cambresis and the com- 
batants came to terms. Henry II. of France agreed to restore 
Calais in eight years' time, under a penalty of forfeiting 500,000 
crowns. During the festivities which celebrated the peace 
between France and Spain, after so many years of war, the 
king, Henry II., was wounded at a tournament, and at his 
death the Crown passed to his son Francis II., the husband of 
Mary Queen of Scots. Francis II., however, died in 1560, 
and Mary returned to Scotland. 

5. Scottish Affairs (1561-1569).— Mary had been absent 
from Scotland for twelve years, during which the Reformation 
had made great progress in the country. In Scotland the 
religious changes were initiated by the nobles, who saw in the 
Reformation movement a weapon to break down the power of 
the Crown and a means to enrich themselves at the expense of 



Elizabeth. 



37 



the Church, which had lost its hold on the people. While 
Mary had been in France her kingdom had been ruled by her 
mother, Mary of Guise, and the effect of the French alliance 
had been at first to discourage Protestantism ; but the accession 
of Elizabeth, and the final breach between England and Rome, 
gave an impulse to the cause of the Reformation in Scotland. 
In 1559 John Knox, the apostle of Calvinism, the form which 
Protestantism had taken in France, returned to Scotland and 
organised the revolt against the Church. The Scottish nobles 
had formed themselves into a league, the " Lords of the Con- 
gregation," and these, inspired by Knox, rebelled against the 
regent, Mary of Guise, and taking up arms seized Edinburgh 
and declared the regent deposed. As they knew that they 
would be unable to hold out against the French troops, whom 
Mary of Guise could summon to her aid, the rebels appealed 
to Elizabeth. The queen was unwilling to appear to support 
rebels against their lawful sovereign, but she agreed in 1560 to 
help the nobles to expel the French from Scotland, and an 
English fleet blockaded the French garrison which held the 
fortress of Leith. The outbreak of the Huguenot troubles in 
France forced the French Government to withdraw its troops 
from Scotland, and by the Treaty of Edinburgh it was agreed 
that foreigners should not be employed in Scotland without the 
consent of Parliament, and that Parliament should settle the 
religious question. Before the treaty was completed the regent 
died, and Presbyterianism was at once proclaimed the religion 
of the Scottish people ; to say Mass or to be present at the 
celebration of Mass was made punishable by death. At the 
same time a great iconoclastic movement vented itself on 
the beautiful churches and monasteries of Scotland, and the 
spoliation of the church by the nobles was carried out on a 
scale which surpassed the analogous movement in England 
under Edward VI. Affairs were in this condition when Mary 
Queen of Scots returned to her native land. 

6. The Fall of Mary Stuart —Marys character, her 
guilt or innocence, has been fiercely attacked and as fiercely 
defended. Mary, it has been well said, " was never tried by a 



238 Elizabeth. 

Court of Justice during her lifetime. Her cause has been 
in process of trial ever since." Her beauty, her matchless 
courage, her extraordinary power of inspiring a passionate 
devotion, these at least cannot be denied. Her gratitude to 
her servants for their sacrifices in her cause was as fervent as 
their loyalty. Nor is there any reason to suppose that in 1561 
Mary, a girl of nineteen, had the hardness of heart and the 
power of dissimulation which have been ascribed to her. But 
she was destined to be schooled in a hard school, and it is no 
matter for wonder if the large loyalty of her nature did not 
survive the outrageous insults hurled at her by Knox and his 
party, the bitter disappointment of her marriage, and the 
hostility with which Elizabeth pursued her. 

For four years Mary left the government in the hands of 
her half-brother, James Stuart, Earl of Murray, but in 1565 
her marriage with her cousin, Henry Stuart, Earl of Darnley, 
caused a rupture with Murray, who rebelled and was driven 
into exile. The marriage proved most disastrous, and Darnley, 
worthless, vicious, and incapable, joined in a conspiracy with 
the Protestant party to murder the queen's favourite, David 
Riccio, and seize power. The murder was carried out in 
Mary's presence, but she contrived soon after to win over her 
husband, and his fellow conspirators thereupon fled to England. 
Three months later Mary gave birth to a son, afterwards 
James I. of England, and this greatly strengthened her posi- 
tion. But unfortunately for her reputation she gave her 
confidence to James, Earl of Bothwell, Darnley's enemy, and 
the murder of the young king, which followed in 1567, was 
openly ascribed to the guilty connivance of Mary in Bothwell's 
plans. Bothwell was put on his trial for the murder, but 
Darnley's father, the Earl of Lennox, was afraid to appear, 
and the trial was a fiasco. Mary then left Edinburgh to visit 
her infant son at Stirling, and on the return journey she was 
met by Bothwell with a large force and carried off to Dunbar. 
A few days later he brought the queen back to Edinburgh, and 
having obtained a divorce from his wife, Janet Gordon, the 
marriage between himself and Mary was solemnised. A 



Elizabeth. 



39 



coalition against Bothwell was at once formed by a number of 
nobles, some of whom had been concerned directly or indi- 
rectly in the murder of both Riccio and Darnley, and had also 
joined in urging Bothwell to marry Mary. Forces were raised 
by both sides, and these met at Carberry Hill ; but the hostile 
nobles were too strong, and Mary agreed to return to Edinburgh 
on condition of being treated as their sovereign. It is signifi- 
cant that Bothwell, whose punishment for Darnley's murder 
was the pretended cause of the rising, was allowed to escape, 
while Mary, in spite of the promises made to her, was sent to 
Loch Leven Castle. She was compelled to sign an abdication 
in favour of her infant son, and to appoint the Earl of Murray 
to be regent. After nine months in prison Mary escaped, 
and backed by the powerful family of the Hamiltons she raised 
a force of royalists (1568). The regent, Murray, however, 
defeated her adherents at Langside, near Glasgow, and the 
queen fled south, crossed the Solway to Workington, and threw 
herself on the friendship of Elizabeth. 

The English queen was much embarrassed by the turn of 
events, and declined to see Mary until she had cleared herself 
of the charges brought against her. Mary refused to recognise 
the right of any one to judge her, and demanded to be con- 
fronted with her accusers, Murray and Morton, before the 
nobles of England and the foreign ambassadors. To meet 
the difficulties of the situation, it was decided that royal 
commissioners under the Duke of Norfolk should investigate 
the accusations, so that Elizabeth might know whether or not 
to help Mary to regain her throne. Murray appeared in 
person before the commissioners at York, and secretly laid 
before them translations of eight letters and some sonnets 
alleged to have been written by Mary to Bothwell. These 
were the famous " Casket Letters," the authenticity of which is 
contested. The inquiry now became the centre of a maze of 
intrigues. Mary's accusers were anxious for a compromise, 
because they knew that in the last resort Mary could produce 
evidence to implicate them in Darnley's murder, and that 
against this the dubious evidence of the " Casket Letters," 



240 Elizabeth. 

denounced by Mary as forged, would weigh but little. The 
inquiry was transferred to London, but Mary was kept at a 
distance of 200 miles, and her demand to see the letters, 
which were the basis of the accusation against her, was evaded. 
Ultimately the inquiry broke down without any decision being 
reached. Murray returned to Scotland with the "Casket 
Letters," which now disappeared from public view. 

7. The Northern Rebellion (1569). — Elizabeth had 
hoped that the result of the inquiry would leave Mary under 
a cloud and render her less dangerous, but instead of this the 
Duke of Norfolk, the head of Elizabeth's commissioners, plotted 
to marry Mary, and to force on Elizabeth the dismissal of Cecil, 
and the adoption of a friendly policy towards Spain. Norfolk 
was arrested and imprisoned, and Mary's supporters in the 
North flew to arms under the Earls of Northumberland and 
Westmoreland. Durham was seized, and for the last time 
Mass was said in the cathedral. The rebels hoped for assist- 
ance from Alva, the Spanish governor of the Netherlands. 
But the rising was premature, the mass of English Catholics 
did not move, and the rebellion collapsed without a battle. 
The rebels were ruthlessly punished ; Northumberland was 
executed in 1572, but Westmoreland escaped to the Nether- 
lands. 

8. England and the Foreign Protestants. — The first 
ten years of Elizabeth's reign were marked by events on 
the Continent of primary importance to both Catholics and 
Protestants. Three years before Elizabeth's accession St. 
Ignatius Loyola had died, and the great Society, which he 
had founded twenty years before, by preaching and teaching, 
had gained already its first triumphs in the struggle against 
heresy. The tide of Protestant revolt began to recede before 
the revival of religious zeal and devotion. In 1563 the 
Council of Trent terminated its labours, and by restating 
the Church's doctrines and by instituting reforms in discipline, 
it had placed clearly before the world the questions at issue 
between Catholicism and Protestantism. While the Society 
of Jesus went forth to reconquer the lost territories, the 



Elizabeth. 241 

Inquisition safeguarded the interests of the Church in those 
countries where Catholicism was supreme, and heresy was 
forcibly stamped out in Italy and Spain. Above all, Spain, under 
Philip II., became the centre of the movement, called by 
historians the " Catholic Reaction," and on Spain rested the 
hopes of those who looked for the forcible repression of the 
reformed faith in England and France. Philip hoped to gain 
an universal empire as a reward for the services of his House in 
the cause of Catholicism. But this interweaving of religious 
and political interests had disastrous results for the cause of 
religion. In England Catholicism came to be identified 
popularly with Spanish aggression and the danger of national 
subjection. In France the fear that Spain would unite with 
the French Government to crush the Huguenots led to the 
outbreak of the French wars of religion in 1562, while the 
threatened extinction of their liberties by Alva brought about 
the revolt of the Netherlands in 1568. 

Elizabeth's attitude towards foreign Protestants was marked 
by characteristic caution and selfishness. She had no ambition 
to play a great part as leader of an anti-Catholic coalition, but 
she was willing enough to paralyse the Governments of France 
and Spain by secretly helping their rebellious subjects with 
men and money. She gladly welcomed the Dutch weavers, 
whom the persecutions of Alva drove from their homes, and 
she allowed volunteers to serve in the Netherlands. But she 
was afraid of a coalition between the Dutch and French, which 
might end in the annexation of the Netherlands by France, 
and she therefore secretly prepared to betray the Dutch to 
Philip. Her policy towards the Huguenots was equally shifty. 
Thus in 1562 she sent a force to occupy Havre, which was placed 
in her hands by the Huguenot leader Conde ; but the obvious 
selfishness of her policy alienated the Huguenots, and Conde, 
having made terms with the French Government, the English 
garrison in Havre had to surrender. Even the infamous 
massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day (1572), 
did not draw her into hostile measures against Charles IX. of 
France. On the contrary she continued to listen, with apparent 

R 



2 A2 Elizabeth. 

satisfaction, to the French proposal that she should marry the 
king's brother the Duke d' Alencon. 

9. Elizabeth and the English Catholics.— At his 

accession to the papal throne, Pius IV. had adopted a con- 
ciliatory attitude towards Elizabeth ; but the queen had deter- 
mined on her policy and refused the Pope's invitation to send 
envoys to the Council of Trent. Since then the friction 
between English Catholics and the Government had increased. 
Many had at first conformed to the reformed worship in 
order to avoid the penalties, but this was forbidden by the 
Council of Trent, and the withdrawal of Catholics from the 
National Church induced the Government to put in force 
the penal statutes against them. A crisis was reached in 
1570 when Pius V. published a Bull, excommunicating 
Elizabeth and declaring her subjects absolved from their 
allegiance, a measure which proved most disastrous to English 
Catholics by giving their enemies a pretext for branding 
them as traitors. The Pope's action called forth in reply 
the Statute of 157 1, which ordered that any persons pro- 
curing Bulls from Rome should suffer the penalties of high 
treason. 

Meanwhile the Duke of Norfolk, the leading Protestant 
nobleman, who had been imprisoned by the queen for planning 
to marry Mary Queen of Scots and had been subsequently 
released, had become involved in the Ridolfi Plot. This was 
a scheme promoted by Ridolfi, an Italian merchant, to seize 
Elizabeth and depose her in favour of Mary. Philip of Spain 
agreed to help Norfolk by sending troops from the Nether- 
lands. The plot was discovered, and Norfolk was executed 
for treason. Parliament urged on Elizabeth that Mary should 
share the same fate, but the queen forbade them to interfere 
in the matter. 

Hitherto the spiritual needs of the Catholics had been pro- 
vided for by those of the Marian priests who survived; but 
these were rapidly being thinned out by death, and to prevent 
the spiritual starvation of English Catholics, a seminary was 
established at Douai by William Allen. From this a stream 



Elizabeth. 243 

of fervent priests was poured into England, and the result of 
their labours was seen in a decided Catholic revival. The 
Government became alarmed. In 1577 Cuthbert Mayne was 
the first of the seminarist priests to suffer martyrdom, and from 
this time till the end of the reign the penal laws were steadily 
augmented in number and were severely enforced. In 1580 
the Jesuit mission began with the arrival of Robert Parsons 
and Edmund Campion. Parliament enacted that any person 
who reconciled members of the Established Church to Catho- 
licism, or w"ho was thus reconciled, should incur the penalties 
of high treason. The punishment for saying Mass was a year's 
imprisonment, and the fine for absence from Church was in- 
creased to £20 a month. A strong effort was made to stamp 
out the adherents of Catholicism, and the prisons were filled 
with persons suspected of infringing the penal laws. Campion 
was arrested, and with two other priests suffered the barbarous 
penalties of treason. The martyrs protested to the last that 
they died loyal subjects of the queen. In 1585 all Jesuits and 
seminary priests were ordered to leave the country on pain of 
death, and any person who harboured them was liable to the 
same penalty. It is calculated that during this persecution 
120 priests died on the scaffold, besides the large number of 
clergy and laymen who fell victims to imprisonment and 
torture. " No special pleading in the world, no attempt 
to extenuate the acts done on the ground that they were 
called for by the exigencies of the hour, can alter the 
fact, that for at least twenty years of Elizabeth's reign 
torture of the most revolting kind was habitually employed 
upon wretched men and women, who one after another 
declared they prayed for her as their queen, but they could 
not, they dared not, accept the creed she attempted to impose 
upon them." 1 

10. The Religious Struggle on the Continent.— 
Abroad the wars of religion were being fought out with terrible 
bitterness. France was convulsed by a series of civil wars. In 

1 "Dictionary of National Biography," Article, "Elizabeth.''' 



244 Elizabeth. 

1574 Charles IX. was succeeded by his brother Henry III., 1 
the last of the Valois kings, and two years later the Catholic 
party, headed by the Duke of Guise, formed the Catholic 
League to force the king not to temporise any longer with the 
Huguenots. In the Netherlands Spain had completely failed 
to put down the Protestants, and the Spanish troops, ill-paid 
and without proper leaders, marched on Antwerp and sacked 
the city. The result of the "Spanish Fury " (1576) was that 
Catholics and Protestants united to expel the Spaniards. The 
sovereignty of the Netherlands was conferred on Alencon, 
now Duke of Anjou, with whom Elizabeth had coquetted for 
the last eight years. Anjou proved hopelessly incompetent, 
and in 1583 retired to France, where he died in 1584. In this 
same year William of Orange was assassinated, and the 
sovereignty of the Netherlands was offered to Elizabeth. The 
queen declined the offer, but agreed in 1585 to furnish the 
Dutch with 4000 troops, in return for which she was to receive 
the towns of Flushing, Brille, and Ramequens as guarantees 
for the repayment of her expenses. An expedition was fitted 
out under the Earl of Leicester, but it was grossly mismanaged, 
and a detachment of the English troops was defeated by the 
Spanish general, the Prince of Parma, at Zutphen (1586). 

11. The Execution of Mary Stuart. — Since the depo- 
sition of the Scottish queen, Scotland had passed through a 
period of great turbulence. In 1570 the Regent, Murray, was 
assassinated, and was succeeded by Darnley's father, the Earl 
of Lennox, who was killed in the following year. The next 
regent, the Earl of Mar, died after a year of power, and the 
Earl of Morton, the most powerful noble in Scotland, became 
regent, and succeeded in putting down the remnants of Mary's 

1 Henry II., 
I547-I559- 

1 r~ ~r ~\ 

Francis IT., Charles IX., Henry III., Francis, 

m. Mary 1560-1574. 1574-1589. Duke of Alencon 

Queen of Scots, and Anjou, 

1 5 S9-iS6o. d. 1584. 



Elizabeth. 245 

party. He contrived with great difficulty to hold his own 
till 1579, when the young king's cousin, Esme Stuart, Lord 
d'Aubigny, came to Scotland, and gained the favour of James. 
Morton was accused of being implicated in the death of 
Darnley, and was executed in 1581. A period of anarchy 
followed, during which the opposing factions struggled for the 
possession of the young king's person. Mary herself had 
hopes that her son would secure her liberation, but the astute 
policy of Elizabeth prevented any connection being established 
between the Scottish king and his mother. 

In 1583 a plan was formed by the Duke of Guise for a 
joint expedition against England on the part of France and 
Spain. The plot was discovered by Walsingham's spies, and 
Throckmorton, the chief conspirator, was arrested, and, on 
being racked, revealed the fact that the Spanish Ambassador 
Mendoza was implicated. Throckmorton was executed, and 
Mendoza left England. Mary was placed in rigorous confine- 
ment at Tutbury Castle, and as the idea of assassinating 
Elizabeth was widely prevalent, an association was formed for 
the queen's protection, which was joined by both Protestants 
and Catholics. Parliament sanctioned it, and ordered that 
any person on whose behalf such conspiracies were formed 
should be incapable of succeeding to the English throne. 

The toils were now closing round Mary, who was driven to 
■desperation by the harshness of her jailors. Her son James 
had deserted her and made his own terms with Elizabeth. At 
every step she was thwarted and out-manceuvred by Cecil and 
Walsingham. In 1586 Walsingham arranged matters so as to 
get access to Mary's letters, and was thus put on the track of a 
plot for the deliverance of the Scottish queen and the murder 
of Elizabeth. Babington and fourteen fellow conspirators were 
arrested and condemned. Their execution was carried out by 
Elizabeth's orders with unusual barbarity. Mary was removed 
to Fotheringay, and was tried by a special commission of peers 
and judges on the charge of conspiring to procure the invasion 
of the realm and Elizabeth's death. At the trial she did not 
deny the first charge, and, indeed, her conduct in trying to 



246 Elizabeth 

procure her own liberty by armed intervention was clearly 
justified. But she denied all complicity in the plot to murder 
Elizabeth, and insisted that the letter to Babington ascribed to 
her was forged. She was not confronted with her two secre- 
taries, from whom incriminating evidence had been obtained 
under threats of torture, nor were the originals of her letters 
to Babington produced. Mary was condemned to death, and ' 
both Houses of Parliament pressed Elizabeth to order the 
execution. The queen, however, hesitated to make herself 
responsible for Mary's death, and tried to induce the jailor, 
Sir Amyas Paulet, to assassinate his prisoner. She finally 
gave way, and signed the death warrant, which was carried 
out at Fotheringay on February 8, 1587. 

12. Drake's Exploits. — For twenty-five years Elizabeth 
had managed to keep England out of war, but her hand was 
now being fprced by the progress of events beyond her control. 
Englishmen and Spaniards in the Netherlands and on the 
high seas had been at war long before there was any open 
rupture between their respective Governments. Plundering 
expeditions were sent out under buccaneers like Sir John 
Hawkins to prey on Spanish commerce in the New World, or 
to cany on the slave trade. In 1577 Francis Drake, with five 
ships, crossed the Atlantic to the coast of Brazil, and sailing 
southwards passed the Straits of Magellan and entered the 
Pacific. He plundered the towns on the coasts of Peru and 
Chili, and fearing that he would be intercepted if he returned 
by the same route, he struck across the Pacific to the Moluccas. 
Thence he sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, and returned 
to England laden with treasure, after a voyage of three years, 
in which he had sailed round the world. For his exploits he 
was knighted by Elizabeth, and in 1585 he was given the 
command of an expedition to the West Indies, where he 
burnt or plundered the towns of St. Iago, St. Domingo, and 
Carthagena. In 1587 Drake, with thirty ships, six of which 
belonged to the royal navy, sailed for Spain, with orders to 
prevent the junction of the Spanish fleets, which were being 
got ready for Philip's projected invasion of England. Drake 



Elizabeth. 247 

boldly dashed into the harbour of Cadiz, and either destroyed 
or captured eighty ships. 

13. The Armada (1588). — Even now Elizabeth strove to 
put off the struggle with Spain, and disavowed Drake's con- 
duct. But Philip had determined to give back blow for blow, 
and to avenge the death of Mary Stuart, who had made him 
the heir of her claims to the English throne. His preparations 
had been delayed by Drake's magnificent daring ; but towards 
the end of May the " Invincible Armada " set sail for the 
conquest of England. It comprised 132 ships with 30,000 
sailors and troops on board. It was commanded by the Duke 
of Medina Sidonia, and his instructions were to sail up the 
Channel, and to form a junction with the Prince of Parma, 
who was in supreme command of the Spanish forces in the 
Netherlands. Parma had collected a large number of flat- 
bottomed boats, and the Armada was to act as a convoy for 
these in transporting Parma's veteran troops across the 
Channel. Had this been achieved, Philip would have suc- 
ceeded in launching a force of 17,000 of the finest troops in 
Europe against England. Against them and the army already 
on board the Armada, Elizabeth could only have brought a 
hastily summoned and undisciplined militia. It was clear, 
therefore, that the salvation of England depended on the 
defeat of the Spanish expedition before a landing could be 
effected. 

On the seas the English fleet soon proved itself more than 
a match for the Spaniards. The royal vessels were few in 
number — not more than forty— but they were built after the 
newest type .designed by Sir John Hawkins, and were more 
easily handled and better armed than the Spanish ships. The 
royal navy was, moreover, reinforced by 160 ships drawn from 
the mercantile marine, and these were strongly armed. On 
the whole, although the Spanish ships were somewhat larger, 
their size proved a disadvantage, for they were less easily 
managed; and, being armed with cannon inferior to the 
English, and being also decidedly undermanned by sailors in 
order to carry more troops, they proved unwieldy in action, 



2 4 8 



Elizabeth. 



and were easily out-manoeuvred. The Duke of Medina 
Sidonia was totally ignorant of warfare, whether by sea or 
land, and his sailors, accustomed to the seafaring life of the 
Mediterranean or the Tropics, were not to be compared with 
the hardy breed of Englishmen, trained to navigate every sea, 
and commanded by such splendid captains as Drake, Hawkins, 
and Frobisher. 

The English fleet was directed by Lord Howard of Effing- 
ham. 1 Lord Howard had as his chief subordinates Sir Francis 
Drake, who was vice-admiral, and Sir John Hawkins, who 
served as rear-admiral. The English fleet, after cruising 
between Scilly and Ushant, gathered at Plymouth to await the 
arrival of the Armada. A squadron under Lord Henry 
Seymour was detached to watch the ports of the Netherlands, 
where Parma's transports had collected. The land forces 
were under the orders of the Earl of Leicester, and it was 
arranged that the arrival of the Spaniards should be signalled 
by beacon fires, and that the militia of each county should turn 
out to resist a landing. 

The Armada came in sight on July 28, and as soon as it 
had passed Plymouth the English fleet started in pursuit. 
The wind from the south-west blew up the Channel, and the 
English constantly manoeuvred so as to have the wind in their 
favour. In the running fight, which was carried on for eight 
days, the English tactics were to concentrate on the flanks and 
rear of the Armada, and their quickness in handling their ships 
enabled them to cut off and capture any isolated Spanish ship 
before the slowly moving galleons could come to its assistance. 
In a helpless plight the Spanish ships sailed up the Channel, 
shattered by the fire of the English cannon, by which they 
were outranged, and unable to come to close quarters with 
their enemy. On August 6, Medina Sidonia anchored his 
fleet off Calais, but it was already clear that the junction with 
Parma was impossible, and that, as the Armada had lost all 

1 The tradition that Lord Howard was a Catholic is not supported by 
contemporary evidence ; but it is certain that the Catholics as a body 
loyally supported the national resistance to foreign invasion. 



Elizabeth. 249 

prospect of commanding the Channel, the invasion of England 
was impossible. On the night of August 6, the English sent 
fireships amongst- the Spanish fleet as it lay at anchor, and the 
panic-stricken Spaniards at once put to sea, but not without 
losing several ships by fire or by being wrecked on the French 
coast. The English, on the other hand, strengthened by the 
addition of Seymour's squadron, outnumbered the Spaniards, 
and in a final engagement with the enemy on August 8, 
off Gravelines, inflicted on Sidonia the loss of sixteen ships 
and 5000 men. The Spanish commander then determined, 
as the wind was blowing strongly from the south, to sail north- 
wards. The English sailors had exhausted their supplies 
of ammunition, the deficiency of which has been unjustly 
ascribed to Elizabeth, and soon gave up the pursuit. The 
Invincible Armada, shattered by the incessant cannonade 
to which it had been subjected, fled northwards along the 
eastern coasts of Britain before a violent gale. Many ships 
were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and only 
fifty-three returned to Spain. 

14. Elizabeth's Foreign Policy (1589- 1598).— With 
the crushing defeat of Spain, the great danger which had 
darkened the horizon of English politics for thirty years passed 
away. But Elizabeth, true to the cautiousness which marked 
her character, steadily refused to reap to the full the advantages 
which success opened to her. Had she chosen to interfere 
decisively in the Netherlands, she might have annihilated 
Spanish pretensions once for all ; but she stood aside, and the 
revolted provinces had to work out their independence with 
little aid from England. For twenty years more, therefore, the 
struggle between the Dutch and Spain continued. Led by 
Maurice, son of William of Orange, the united provinces 
successfully resisted the efforts of the Duke of Parma and his 
successors. In 1597 Philip, to conciliate France, formed the 
Southern Netherlands into a separate State under his son-in- 
law, Archduke Albert of Austria. 

In France civil war continued to rage. Philip of Spain 
supported the Duke of Guise and the Catholic League, and 



2 5° 



Elizabeth. 



Henry III. of France, in 1588, had been driven from Paris 
because he refused to bow to the League's commands, and in 
the end had been compelled to make the Duke of Guise 
lieutenant-general of the kingdom. To extricate himself from 
the League he ordered the assassination of Guise, and threw 
himself on the support of his heir, Henry of Navarre, the 
leader of the Huguenots. Henry III. was assassinated in 
1589, and Henry of Navarre, the first of the Bourbon kings, 
claimed the throne. A struggle followed with the League, but 
in 1593 Henry became a Catholic, and thus secured his 
recognition by the majority of his subjects. Elizabeth, who 
in 1590 and 1591 had helped Henry with a large body of 
troops, was deeply offended. In 1598 Henry IV., by the 
Treaty of Vervins, made peace with Spain, and about the same 
time issued the Edict of Nantes, granting toleration to his 
Huguenot subjects. 

From the defeat of the Armada to the end of her reign, the 
war against Spain was continued by Elizabeth. In 1589 an 
expedition under Norris and Drake landed in Portugal, which 
had been annexed by Spain in 1580, to support the Portuguese 
pretender. Corunna was captured, and a Spanish army was 
defeated, but no permanent results were achieved. In 1594 
Drake and Hawkins sailed to the West Indies, but the ex- 
pedition failed, and the two great captains died during the 
voyage. In 1596 an expedition under Lord Howard of 
Effingham, Lord Essex, and Sir Walter Raleigh, attacked 
Cadiz and destroyed the Spanish fleet and arsenal. In 1598 
Philip of Spain died, and the war slowly flickered out. 

15. The English Government in Ireland (1485-1558). 
— The history of English rule in Ireland, from the first inter- 
vention under Strongbow and Henry II., is a sad story of 
almost unredeemed failure. Throughout the Middle Ages the 
English, shut up in the Pale, which comprised the districts of 
Drogheda, Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, and Cork, were just 
able to maintain themselves, because the Irish were too much 
occupied by their inter-tribal wars to combine in sweeping 
their invaders into the sea. Both within the Pale and beyond 



IRELAND 

1 171 to 1798. 

English Miles 
o 10 20 30 40 50 60 




Walker & Cockerell sc. 



252 Elizabeth. 

the dyke which marked its limits inland, the wildest anarchy 
prevailed. The Anglo-Norman families, which had created 
for themselves feudal lordships outside the Pale, gradually 
became imbued with Irish ideas, and adopted the Irish dress 
and language. In 1367, by the Statute of Kilkenny, the Irish 
Parliament, which practically only represented the Pale, for- 
bade Englishmen to use the Irish dress or language, and 
made it treason to follow the native or Brehon laws, or to 
marry into Irish families. The statute failed completely, and 
during the fifteenth century, while England was occupied 
by the French war and by the Wars of the Roses, Ireland 
was left to itself. 

Henry VII. determined to reassert the supremacy of the 
English Crown, and sent Sir Edward Poynings as lord deputy. 
In 1494, Poynings' Law was passed, which ordered the Irish 
Parliament not to legislate on any matter without the previous 
sanction of the Crown. Henry VII. was, however, too weak 
to do much, and the Earl of Kildare, the head of the Norman 
family, the Fitzgeralds of the Pale and Leinster, was made 
Lord Deputy. Henry VIII. was opposed to the policy of 
ruling Ireland by great Irish lords, who derided the authority 
of the Crown, and determined to govern Ireland with a firm 
hand. The Earl Gerald of Kildare, who had succeeded his 
father as Lord Deputy in 15 13, was summoned to England and 
imprisoned (1534). His son, the young Lord Thomas Fitz- 
gerald, rebelled, but he was attacked in his stronghold, 
Maynooth, by the deputy SkefUngton, and surrendered. The 
extermination of the Fitzgeralds was ordered, and Lord 
Thomas and his five uncles were executed in 1537. Only 
two members of the family, Earl Gerald, a boy of twelve, 
and his younger brother, survived. 

The Reformation introduced a fresh element of discord 
into Ireland. A Parliament in Dublin, in 1536, on the demand 
of the deputy, Lord Leonard Grey, declared the king supreme 
over the Irish Church, abolished appeals to Rome, and con- 
fiscated the monasteries. At the same time the stringent Acts 
against the Irish dress and manners were revived. The Anglo- 



Elizabeth. 



2 53 



Norman and Irish nobles were rewarded for their acquiescence 
in the religious changes by grants of titles and by a share in 
the spoils. In 1541 Henry VIII. assumed the title of King 
of Ireland. In the same year Lord Leonard Grey, who was 
connected by marriage with the Fitzgeralds, was accused of 
treason in favouring the Geraldine interest, and was executed. 

The people of Ireland had viewed with indifference the 
religious changes ordered in 1536. Thomas Cromwell, backed 
by his agent Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, tried in vain to 
force on the Irish an active acceptance of the Reformation. 
He was frustrated by a dogged resistance. Under Edward VI. 
the deputy, Anthony St. Leger, ordered the bishops to accept 
the English Prayer-book, but the majority refused and were 
deprived, their places being taken by advanced Protestants, 
With the accession of Mary the papal supremacy and the 
Mass were restored. Unhappily, racial antagonism was in- 
creased by the creation of two new shires, Queen's County and 
King's County, by driving out the Irish and planting the 
country with English settlers. This fatal policy provoked a 
savage struggle between the planters and the dispossessed 
Irish. 

16. Ireland under Elizabeth. — In 1 541 the head of the 
powerful clan, the O'Neills of Ulster, had been created Earl of 
Tyrone, and at his death the English Government recognised 
his eldest son Matthew as heir in opposition to the claim of 
another son, Shane O'Neill, who declared that Matthew was not 
the late earl's son. Shane was acknowledged by his tribe, and 
Elizabeth therefore ordered Lord Deputy Sussex to proceed 
against him. In 15 61 Sussex led a raid into the Tyrone 
territory, but was pursued by Shane and defeated. In spite 
of all the efforts of the deputy, Shane remained master of the 
north, and after a visit to England, extorted from Elizabeth 
the recognition of his title. But the treacherous conduct of 
the English Government roused his resentment and he rebelled. 
Sir Henry Sydney, who succeeded Sussex as deputy, was an 
abler general, and decided to put an end to the rule of the 
O'Neills in Ulster. Shane in vain attacked the Pale. He 



254 Elizabeth. 

was repulsed before Dundalk, and defeated at Kerry (1566). 
In the following year he was routed by his enemies the 
O'Donnells, and shortly afterwards was murdered. Shane 
was not merely a warrior ; he had ruled Ulster with success, 
and throughout his career showed conspicuous ability both as 
diplomatist and administrator. 

During these northern struggles the south had also been 
the scene of a warfare caused by the rivalries of the Geraldines 
and Butlers ; the former were led by the Earl of Desmond, 
who was the head of the Munster branch of the Fitzgeralds, 
and the latter by the Earl of Ormonde. In 1579 Sir James 
Fitzmaurice, a Geraldine, landed in Kerry under orders from 
the Pope, but was defeated and killed. In 1580 Lord 
Desmond rebelled with the aid of some Spanish and Italian 
troops. Desmond was defeated, and the foreign troops, after 
sustaining a siege in Smerwick, surrendered and were brutally 
murdered. Desmond was killed in 1583. The estates of the 
Geraldines were confiscated, and an attempt was made to 
colonise Munster with English settlers. 

The atrocities perpetrated by the English in Ireland drove 
the people to desperation, and the double attack on their 
religion and their nationality forced the Irish into some sort of 
union against their oppressors. Hugh O'Neill, nephew of 
Shane, had succeeded to the earldom of Tyrone through the 
favour of the English. But in 1598 he revolted, and defeated 
an English force under Sir Henry Bagenal at the battle of the 
Yellow Ford. The danger was so great that Robert Devereux, 
Earl of Essex, Elizabeth's favourite, was sent with a large army 
to Ireland. Essex led a futile campaign against O'Neill in 
1599, and in the end had to agree to a humiliating truce. He 
returned to England to justify his conduct, and was replaced 
by Lord Mountjoy. Three years of struggle were required to 
put down the rebellion which had spread to Munster and other 
parts of Ireland. In 1601 a Spanish force landed in Kinsale 
Harbour and occupied the town. Mountjoy besieged it, and 
Hugh O'Neill, who marched to its relief, was completely 
routed. After bridling Munster with a chain of forts, Mountjoy 



Elizabeth 



255 



turned to attack O'Neill in Ulster, and in 1603 the rebel earl 
submitted. 

17. The Puritans. — At Elizabeth's accession a number 
of Protestant clergy, who had taken refuge in Switzerland 
during the Marian persecution, returned to England, eager to 
spread the Calvinistic doctrines which they had embraced. 
They soon found that Elizabeth had determined to retain a 
large number of ceremonies which they were accustomed to 
regard as idolatrous, and they showed their dislike by refusing 
to wear surplices and to observe the ceremonies ordered by the 
Prayer-book. They had powerful supporters in the Council, 
Parliament, and Convocation, and but for the opposition of the 
queen, revolutionary changes would have been effected. In 
1565 Archbishop Parker issued "Advertisements" ordering 
the use of the surplice, and those clergy who refused to conform 
were deprived of their benefices. Hitherto the opposition had 
turned on ceremonial questions, but about 1570 the Puritans 
began to call in question the constitution of the Established 
Church, and to denounce the episcopal system as antichristian. 
Their leader was Thomas Cartwright, who supported a violent 
attack known as " An Admonition to Parliament," in which the 
royal supremacy and episcopacy were declared contrary to 
Scripture. Parker died in 1575, but his successor, Grindal, 
sympathised with the Puritans, and when he refused to put 
down their religious meetings, known as " Prophesyings," 
the queen, using her authority as Supreme Governor of the 
Church, suspended him from his functions. In 1583 Whitgift 
became archbishop, and a vigorous attempt was made to 
enforce conformity. The High Commission Court had been 
set up early in the reign, and Whitgift now wielded its power, 
with much effect, against the Puritans. The attempt of 
Cartwright and his followers to set up the Presbyterian system 
of " synods" and " classes" within the Church was put down. 
Till now separation from the Church had been discountenanced 
by the Puritan leaders, their aim being to reform it from 
within; but the more extreme members, the followers of 
Robert Browne, began to set up conventicles of their own, and 



256 Elizabeth. 

thus to lay the foundation of modern Dissent. Towards the 
end of the reign the violence of the Puritans, in their attacks on 
the Church in the " Martin Marprelate Tracts," seems to have 
provoked a reaction against them, for the Government, which 
hitherto had been bitterly attacked in Parliament, was able in 
1593 to pass a bill punishing frequenters of conventicles with 
banishment, and even death. 

18. The Last Years of Elizabeth. — The end of the 
queen's long reign was now approaching. Her old advisers, 
Leicester, Walsingham, and William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 
were dead. Essex, after his fiasco in Ireland, had been coldly 
received by the queen, and had attempted a rebellion which 
brought him to the scaffold (1601). The glories of her reign 
were over, but Elizabeth, in spite of advancing years, clung to 
the pageantry and pleasures of her early life. She was not one 
of those who knew how to grow old with dignity, and she still 
exacted from her courtiers the homage and flattery, which had 
seemed appropriate in the days of her youth. But events were 
passing beyond her control. Elizabeth had no fondness for 
Parliaments, and in the forty-four years of her reign she only 
summoned Parliament thirteen times. She moreover fre- 
quently interfered to prevent discussions on subjects distasteful 
to her, such as her marriage, or her ecclesiastical policy. As 
a rule she carried her point with the Commons. But in 1601 
the queen had to submit to a vigorous protest from the 
Commons, on the subject of certain monopolies she had granted 
to her favourites for the sale or manufacture of articles of trade, 
and she had to promise to revoke all such grants as should be 
found injurious. Early in 1602 Elizabeth's health began to 
fail, although she struggled bravely against increasing weakness. 
Her memory failed, and she became subject to attacks of 
mental excitement, followed by prostration. In January, 1603, 
she grew rapidly worse, and died in March, signifying, as it was 
believed, her wish that James VI. of Scotland should be her 
successor. 



Elizabeth. 257 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Act of Supremacy T ^g 

Flight of Mary Queen of Scots to England . 1568! 

Rebellion of the North I5 6 9# 

Papal Bull of Deposition i 57a 

Jesuit mission begins ^So! 

Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots . . . 1587. 

The Armada . . , , j^S. 



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CHAPTER XXIX. 

JAMES I. (1603-1625). 

I. Character of the Stuart Period.— With the accession 
of James I. the opposition to the autocratic action of the 
Crown, which had been growing in intensity during the later 
years of Elizabeth, began to show itself unmistakably. The 
Tudor system, which had brought the nation in safety through 
a series of crises of both external and internal peril, had now 
to meet the challenge of Parliamentary claims and Puritan 
aggression. It was equally impossible that the monarchy, as 
moulded by the Tudors, and the Church, which Elizabeth had 
created, should maintain their position without a struggle. 
The former, by its very success, had rendered some of its 
despotic powers obsolete ; the latter, in its origin a compromise, 
imposed on a bewildered nation by secular authority, had to 
face the opposition of the Catholics and Presbyterians, and of 
other dissentients from the Elizabethan settlement of religion. 
To meet its opponents, secular and religious, the monarchy 
armed itself with the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, 
which stamped all opposition to the royal will as sinful. 
James himself lost no opportunity for insisting that the king, as 
the source of laws, could not be bound by them, and that as 
"it is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do 
... so it is presumption and high contempt in a subject to 
dispute what a king can do, or say that a king can not do this 
or that.' : The Church, the humble handmaid of the State, 
enforced the claims of its royal master, and throughout the 
Stuart period, till 1685, the fortunes of Crown and Church rose 
and fell together. It was only when Churchmen saw themselves 

25? 



260 James I. 

threatened by the policy of James II. that they joined with 
their non-conforming opponents in tearing up by the roots the 
doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings. All through the Stuart 
period, therefore, religion and politics were closely interwoven, 
and the political struggles of the times had always some bearing 
on religious interests. 

2. The Accession of James I. — Henry VIII., as em- 
powered by Parliament, had settled the succession on his three 
children, and had ordered that, in the event of their dying 
without issue, the Crown was to go to the descendants of his 
younger sister, Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, thus ignoring the 
children of his elder sister, Margaret, wife of James IV. of 
Scotland. 1 The Suffolk claim was now represented by William 
Seymour, grandson of Catherine Grey, the sister of the 
unfortunate Lady Jane Grey ; but the validity of Catherine 
Grey's marriage was disputed, and Seymour was without 
supporters. The supposed wishes of Elizabeth, and respect 
for the claims of primogeniture, which in this case would 
bring about a pacific union with Scotland, prevailed in 
upsetting the will of Henry VIII. 

James was now in his thirty-seventh year. He was unpre- 
possessing in appearance, and his vanity and fondness for 
display did not prevent his indulgence in slovenly attire, and 
an undignified demeanour. His broad Scottish accent was 
intensified by a tongue too large for his mouth, while his 

r THE HOUSE OF SUFFOLK. 
Mary = Charles, Duke of Suffolk. 



Frances = Henry Grey, Eleanor. 

Duke of Suffolk. I 



Margaret. 



T I I 

Jf ne > Catherine = Edward Seymour. 

m. Guilford 
Dudley, Lord Beauchamp. 

d. 1554. I 

William Seymour = Arabella Stuart. 



James I. 261 

shambling movements and his habit of leaning on the shoulders 
of his favourites excited the derision of his courtiers. But with 
all his defects he was gifted with a wide and varied learning, 
with a shrewd and caustic humour which prevented him from 
being the dupe of even those he seemed most to trust, and with 
a pertinacity of will which enabled him to achieve by devious 
paths the aims on which he was bent. 

James was welcomed by all parties in England. Church- 
men realised the support they would gain from his maxim, 
" No bishop, no king '" ; Catholics expected at the least tolera- 
tion from the son of Mary Stuart, and Presbyterians remem- 
bered that he had been brought up in the tenets of the Scottish 
Kirk. All but the first were destined to be disappointed, and 
the result was a sharp reaction, and widespread discontent. 

3. The Main and Bye Plots (1603). — The Court was 
divided into two parties over the question of peace with Spain. 
Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's minister, the leader of the peace 
party, had ingratiated himself with James by his services in 
facilitating the king's accession. Of a cold and narrow tem- 
perament, he favoured a policy of nursing the resources of the 
nation, which would give scope for his industry and mastery of 
detail. His opponent, Sir Walter Raleigh, a man of genius 
and a man of action, upheld the policy of war with Spain, to 
be waged in the Netherlands and the New World. He was 
aggrieved when Cecil was reappointed Secretary of State, 
while he was dismissed from the Captaincy of the Guard, and 
he associated himself with a cowardly intriguer, Lord Cobham, 
in a scheme known as the Main Plot. Its aim is not clear ; 
but certainly Cecil's removal from power was planned, and it is 
possible that among the wilder conspirators the deposition of 
James in favour of his cousin, Arabella Stuart, was mooted. 
At the same time a conspiracy, known as the Bye Plot, was in 
progress amongst a number of Catholics, who were incensed at 
the failure of James to grant the toleration which they believed 
he had promised before his accession. Their scheme, which 
was to seize the king, was mainly due to William Watson, 
a priest who was opposed to the Jesuits and the Spanish party 



262 James I. 

amongst the Catholics. Cobham's brother, George Brooke, was 
the connecting link between the two plots. The Bye Plot was 
revealed to the Jesuit Provincial, Gerard, who, after urging the 
conspirators to desist, warned the Government. Cecil already 
had information through another source, and the complicity of 
Brooke in both plots led to the unravelling of the Main Plot, 
and to the arrest of all the conspirators. Two priests, Watson 
and Clarke, together with Brooke, were executed. Cobham 
tried to save himself by lying accusations against Raleigh, but 
in the end both were condemned, although immediately re- 
prieved. Raleigh remained in the Tower, where he occupied 
himself in writing his " History of the World." 

4. The Hampton Court Conference (1604).— On his 
way south from Scotland, in 1603, James had received the 
Millenary Petition, a document supposed to be signed by a 
thousand Puritans, in which the old objections to religious 
ceremonies were re-stated. A conference between the two 
parties in the Church was held at Hampton Court in the 
presence of the king. The Puritan representatives, four in 
number, were confronted with eighteen opponents, of whom 
nine were bishops ; while the king seems to have used the 
occasion as an opportunity for the display of his theological 
attainments. No concessions of importance were held out to 
the Puritan party, and at their mention of the word Presbytery, 
James intervened with the violent retort, " If you aim at a 
Scotch presbytery, it agreeth as well with monarchy as God 
and the devil." James closed the meeting, and as he left 
the room, threatened that if the Puritans refused to conform 
he would "harry them out of the land, or else do worse." 
Throughout the conference the king's controversial powers 
were enlisted on the side of the bishops, and for this he was 
repaid by the gross adulation of his supporters. " Un- 
doubtedly," exclaimed Archbishop Whitgift, " your Majesty 
speaks by the special assistance of God's spirit." Hence- 
forward, whatever ideas of toleration James may have had 
before his accession to the English throne, the maxim, " No 
bishop, no king," became the guiding principle of his conduct. 



James I. 26 



5 



The Stuart monarchy had allied itself definitely with the 
Church of England, an alliance fraught with momentous con- 
sequences. 

5. The Gunpowder Plot (1605).— It was believed 
amongst Catholics that James, before his accession, had 
pledged himself to grant toleration, and at first he seemed 
anxious to avoid persecution. He had indirectly opened 
negotiations with Clement VIII., and the Pope, rightly or 
wrongly, had come to the conclusion that there were valid 
grounds for expecting that James I. would follow the example 
of Henry IV. of France, and submit to the Catholic Church. 
The Pope had refused to excommunicate James, and had 
ordered English Catholics to support loyally the new Govern- 
ment. But the practical suspension of the penal laws led to a 
great increase in the number of Catholics, and James, becoming 
alarmed, banished all priests from London and put in force 
the laws against Recusants. Meanwhile, Robert Catesby, a 
Warwickshire gentleman, had formed a plot to blow up the 
Houses of Parliament when the king was present at the begin- 
ning of the session, and to proclaim the accession of Jhe king's 
daughter, Elizabeth, who was to be educated as a Catholic. 
The plot was Joined by Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, and 
Guy Fawkes, and subsequently by Tresham, Digby, and Roke- 
wood, and a few others. A house was hired next to the House 
of Lords, and the conspirators began to dig a mine. Finding, 
however, that a coal cellar under the House of Lords was to 
be let, they abandoned the mine, and managed to store a large 
quantity of gunpowder in barrels in the cellar. Tresham, one 
of the conspirators, fearing for the safety of his brother-in-law, 
Lord Monteagle, warned him in a letter to be absent at the 
opening of Parliament. Monteagle passed the letter on "to 
Cecil, who, apparently, had already some clue to the plot, and 
the result was that the cellar was searched, and Guy Fawkes 
was arrested. Catesby and his friends fled to Holbeche in 
Staffordshire, but were surrounded by the forces summoned by 
the Sheriff of Worcestershire. Catesby and Percy were killed, 
and the rest were captured. Eight of the conspirators were 



264 James I. 

tried and executed. The Government was most anxious to 
show that some of the priests, and above all, the Jesuits, had 
been privy to the plot. Father Garnet, the provincial of the 
Jesuits, was therefore ordered to be arrested. At his trial 
Garnet admitted that he had gained from Catesby a general 
knowledge of " some stirring, seeing that the king kept not his 
promise," and that he had expressed his disapproval. Subse- 
quently the Jesuit, Greenway, in confession, had given him a 
full account of the conspiracy, the details of which Greenway 
had learnt from his penitent Bates, one of the conspirators, 
who had been executed. It was, of course, impossible for 
Garnet to make use of knowledge thus acquired, but he had 
hoped that Catesby would give him an opportunity before the 
plot was carried out for remonstrating against the whole pro- 
ject. Garnet was condemned and executed. Although there 
was no evidence to show that the general body of English 
Catholics was implicated in the plot, the recusancy laws were 
made more stringent, and the persecution of Catholics became 
hotter than before. 

6. James and Parliament. — It was inevitable that 
James, with his high ideas of the prerogative, should come 
into collision with Parliament, and his relations with the 
Commons were, throughout the reign, marked by a series of 
acrimonious wrangles. The king constantly insisted that their 
privileges were dependent on his grace and favour. When 
Parliament opposed the royal scheme for a closer union with 
Scotland, James obtained from the judges, in a suit known as 
" Calvin's Case," a decision that the " Postnati," that is, Scots 
born after his accession to the English throne, were legally 
naturalised in England. As he was hampered by the smallness 
of the supplies granted by Parliament, he increased the customs. 
Bates, a Levant merchant, in 1606 refused to pay the imposition 
of five shillings per hundredweight on currants, and the case 
was tried in the Exchequer Court. The case for the Crown was 
a strong one, as the right of the Crown to regulate trade had 
been recognised by Parliament in 1534. But the judges, in 
deciding for the Crown, went far beyond the needs of the case 



James I. 265 

in their assertion of the powers of the prerogative, and Cecil, 
who had been created Earl of Salisbury and treasurer, was 
able to issue, in 1608, a Book of Rates, increasing the customs 
in every direction. In 1610 James, in a scheme called the 
Great Contract, offered to sell his feudal rights for ^200,000 
a year. The Commons were at first willing to purchase the 
abolition of these vexatious imposts, but ultimately backed out 
of the negotiations, and in 16 11 the Parliament, which had 
been in existence since 1604, was dissolved. In 16 14 the 
" Addled Parliament " was summoned by James in reliance on 
the promise of some prominent members of the Commons, that 
if he would make concessions they would undertake to manage 
the House. The Commons were angry at the conduct of the 
" Undertakers," as they were called, and after a stormy session 
of two months, Parliament was dissolved. 

7. The Royal Favourites.— On the death of Robert 
Cecil, Earl of Salisbury (161 2), James passed under the influence 
of Robert Carr, a handsome young Scot, whom he made 
Viscount Rochester. In 161 3 Carr was married to the 
Countess of Essex, whose divorce from her husband, the young 
Earl of Essex, was procured through the influence of the 
king, who interfered in the legal proceedings in a most 
scandalous manner. In honour of his marriage Carr was 
raised to the Earldom of Somerset. But to attain their ends 
Carr had been obliged to get rid of Sir Thomas Overbury, 
whose evidence might have endangered the divorce proceed- 
ings. Overbury was imprisoned in the Tower and poisoned 
by order of Lady Essex. Two years later the crime became 
known, and both Somerset and his wife were found guilty and 
imprisoned. By this time James had found another favourite 
in George Villiers, a handsome young courtier, the son of a 
Leicestershire squire, to whom he made large grants of land. 
Titles were showered on Villiers, till, in 1623, he was created 
Duke of Buckingham, and appointed Lord High Admiral. 
Buckingham was not without good qualities, but the rapid rise 
turned his head and made him arrogant in conduct and over- 
confident in his abilities as a statesman. 



266 James I. 

8. The Execution of Raleigh (1618).— In 1604 James 
had concluded the Treaty of London, by which peace was 
made with Philip III. of Spain. Cecil, who from the first had 
been in favour of peace, and had negotiated the treaty, accepted 
a Spanish pension, and from time to time secretly furnished the 
Spanish Government with information. After Cecil's death Can- 
had favoured the Spanish alliance, and the anti-Spanish party 
had therefore supported George Villiers against him. But 
Villiers, when he came into power, upheld the project of a 
marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta Maria. 
Nevertheless, in spite of the friendly policy towards Spain, 
Sir Walter Raleigh was released from the Tower, and allowed 
to sail for the Orinoco in Guiana in search of gold, on giving 
a promise that he would not attack Spanish property. As 
Spain claimed Guiana the pledge was clearly impossible to 
keep, and Raleigh found himself drawn into a conflict with 
the Spaniards. The expedition was a miserable failure, and 
on his return to Plymouth Raleigh was arrested. James 
allowed him to be executed under the charge of treason, for 
which he had been sentenced to death in 1603. Public indig- 
nation justly ascribed Raleigh's death to the king's subservience 
to Spain. 

9. The Spanish Match and the Parliament of 1621. 
— In 1 6 18 the long delayed struggle for supremacy between 
Catholics and Protestants in Germany broke out, and the Thirty 
Years' War began in 161 9 with the seizure of the kingdom 
of Bohemia by Frederick, the Elector Palatine. Bohemia 
belonged to the Emperor Ferdinand II., but the Protestant 
Bohemians revolted and elected Frederick. Frederick had 
married Elizabeth, daughter of James, and the king saw with 
dismay the union of the Austrian and Spanish branches of the 
House of Hapsburg against his son-in-law. The Elector was 
defeated at the battle of the White Mountain in 1620, and was 
driven from Bohemia. Philip III. of Spain at once came to 
the help of Ferdinand, and the Palatinate was invaded by 
Spanish troops under Spinola, while Frederick was placed 
under the ban of the Empire (1621). James had never 



James I. 267 

approved of Frederick's Bohemian adventure, but when his 
son-in-law was attacked in the Palatinate, he allowed English 
volunteers to go to the rescue, and prepared to subsidise 
Frederick's allies. 

In 1 62 1 Parliament was summoned to provide funds. But 
the Commons, although eager to come to the help of Frederick, 
would not grant supplies until war was certain to be declared. 
Meanwhile they proceeded to deal with the old abuse, the grant 
of monopolies. Mitchell and Mompesson, the holders of certain 
monopolies, were attacked and punished. The Commons then 
sent up to the Lords complaints against Lord Chancellor 
Bacon. He was accused of receiving bribes, and was deprived 
of his office, fined, and imprisoned. James then informed the 
Commons that he had sent Lord Digby to Vienna to induce 
the emperor not to deprive Frederick of his possessions, and 
the House declared itself ready to defend the Palatinate. 
Digby's mission, however, failed, and when James asked for 
financial help, the Commons petitioned that Prince Charles 
should marry a Protestant. James ordered them not to discuss 
high " mysteries of State," whereupon the Commons drew 
up a protest insisting on their right to discuss all matters of 
State, and asserting their privilege of freedom of speech. James 
tore the protest from the journals of the House and dissolved 
Parliament. 

10. The Journey of Prince Charles to Madrid (1623). 
— In 1622 Frederick was expelled from the Palatinate, and the 
primary object of James's diplomacy was now to procure the 
Elector's restoration by means of an alliance with Spain. In 
1623 Prince Charles and Buckingham set out on a romantic 
journey to Madrid. Their arrival caused considerable em- 
barrassment to the Spanish Government, which had no intention 
of helping the Elector Palatine, and the Infanta showed a 
strong dislike to her union with a heretic. The Spanish Court 
demanded impossible conditions, and Charles and Buckingham 
returned to England, eager for war with Spain. The breaking 
off of the Spanish match was very popular in England, and 
Charles, on his return to England, was welcomed with every 



268 James I. 

sign of national satisfaction. Negotiations were at once opened 
with the French Court for a marriage between Charles and 
Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII. As in the case of the 
Spanish marriage, a papal dispensation had to be obtained, 
and this would not be granted unless a promise of toleration, 
for English Catholics was inserted in the marriage treaty. To 
this James knew that Parliament would never consent. Charles, 
in fact, declared on oath, that if he married a Catholic the 
marriage should be " no advantage to the recusants at home." 
Ultimately, after long negotiations between the English Govern- 
ment and Richelieu, it was agreed that Charles, in spite of his 
promise to Parliament, should sign a private engagement, 
promising, on the faith and word of a prince, that his Catholic 
subjects should enjoy freedom of worship (1624). 

11. The Parliament of 1624.— During these negotiations, 
James summoned the last Parliament of his reign. In his speech 
at the opening of Parliament, the king definitely abandoned the 
view he had insisted on in 1621, that Parliament should not 
interfere in foreign affairs, for he now invited its advice on his 
relations with Spain. The popularity of a war with Spain was 
undoubted, but whereas James and Buckingham wished to come 
to the help of the Elector Palatine in Germany, the Commons 
were eager for striking a blow at Spain in the Indies and on 
the high seas. The Commons, therefore, in granting the king 
supplies, appointed treasurers to spend the money on four 
specified objects, viz. : the defence of the realm, the security 
of Ireland, the navy, and the assistance of the .Dutch and 
other allies. A force of 12,000 was landed in Holland to 
serve under the German adventurer, Mansfeld, but the expedi- 
tion was mismanaged, and three-fourths of the men died of 
disease and exposure. The king's control of affairs had 
never been efficient, and it had grown weaker as his health 
declined. On March 27, 1625, after a brief illness, his con- 
stitution, undermined by intemperate habits, gave way, and he 
died, leaving a heritage of trouble to his son. 



James I. 269 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Gunpowder Plot 1605. 

Death of Robert Cecil 1612. 

Rise of Buckingham 1616. 

War with Spain 1624. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CHARLES I. (1625-1649). 

(1) The Struggle for Political Supremacy between 
King and Parliament (1 625-1 642). 

1. Policy and Character of Charles I, — Circumstances 
had combined under James I. to prevent any definite decision 
of the great constitutional questions at issue between the 
monarchy and Parliament. On the one hand, James, partly 
from indolence and partly from a shrewd appreciation of the 
forces threatening the monarchy, had avoided pushing matters 
to extremes. And, on the other hand, Parliament had not yet 
shaken off the habits of deference in which it had been trained 
under the Tudors. But in the person of Charles I. the claims 
of Divine Right and of a sovereignty independent of the will 
of the nation found an exponent who might be crushed, but 
would never be convinced. Yet there was much to be said 
for the views which Charles and his advisers, Strafford and 
Laud, upheld. The constitutional position of the monarchy, 
as the Tudors had understood it, was in possession of the 
field, and the Stuarts were therefore, as it seemed to them, 
trustees under God for the inheritance they had received. 
It was true that under the Lancastrian kings Parliament had 
played a larger part in directing affairs, but if a system was 
to be judged by its results, the Lancastrian system stood 
condemned by the anarchy of the fifteenth century. Even 
on the narrow ground of legal precedent, to which the 
Parliamentarians appealed, the Stuart monarchy had, to say 
the least, not the worst of the argument. But the truth is 

270 



Charles I. 



271 



that the quarrel between king and Parliament soon passed 
out of the sphere of legal discussion. Altered circumstances 
had made the Tudor system obsolete, and national develop- 
ment could only, as things were, find its expression in 
Parliament. Charles had many virtues and accomplishments, 
but he was incapable of looking at problems from any stand- 
point other than his own, and even when compelled to yield, 
he did so with reservations, which laid him open to the 
charge of pursuing a tortuous course, and made it impossible 
for him to acquiesce honestly in any settlement which limited 
his prerogative. 

2. The Parliaments of 1625 and 1626. — A large sum 
of money was required for the war with Spain and for the 
recovery of the Palatinate, but the Commons only voted 
,£140,000, and proposed to grant the king tonnage and 
poundage for one year, instead of for life, as had been the 
custom in the preceding reigns. They refused to vote more 
money, and Buckingham was attacked as incompetent to direct 
the national policy. Moreover the favour shown to Catholics 
since the king's recent marriage to Henrietta Maria roused 
suspicions, and Charles, in defiance of his written promise to 
Louis XIII., had to put into force the penal laws. To screen 
Buckingham the king dissolved Parliament. 

In the autumn of 1625 an expedition under Sir Edward 
Cecil was sent to attack Cadiz, but it proved a costly failure, 
and Buckingham was credited with its mismanagement. Mean- 
while the duke went to the Hague to negotiate the consolidation 
of -a great anti-Spanish confederacy, of which Christian of 
Denmark was to be the head. Want of money to subsidise 
the allies" compelled Buckingham to return, and Parliament 
was summoned. Charles's second Parliament, however, proved 
more refractory than the first, and, led by Sir John Eliot, the 
Commons impeached Buckingham. They were specially in- 
censed at Buckingham's conduct in lending English ships to 
Louis XIII. to be used against the Huguenots of Rochelle. 
Charles, after quarrelling on questions of privilege with both 
Houses, dissolved Parliament. 



272 Charles I. 

3. The Breach with France (1627). — The Huguenots, 
as a result of the wars of religion, had gained a position in 
France which made them practically an independent power 
within the State, and it was Richelieu's policy to deprive 
them of this while leaving them the freedom of worship 
granted by the Edict of Nantes. Having done this, he was 
prepared to interfere in Germany on behalf of the Protestants 
against the Austro-Spanish House of Hapsburg. But to crush 
the Huguenots was to rouse the hostility of England, and 
Charles felt bound to come to their aid when Rochelle was 
threatened. In 1627 war broke out, and a fleet, under the 
command of Buckingham, sailed for the island of Re, but 
failed to capture the chief fortress. French troops were 
landed, and the English were driven to take refuge in their 
ships. Buckingham returned to England, having lost over 
3500 men. 

4. The Petition of Right (1628).— Charles had raised 
money for the French war by levying a forced loan, and had 
imprisoned those who refused to pay. Darnel and four other 
knights, who were sent to gaol, sued for a writ of Habeas 
Corpus, but the judges declined to release them. When, 
therefore, Charles's third Parliament met in 1628, Sir Edward 
Coke brought forward the Petition of Right. By this, forced 
loans and taxes without the consent of Parliament were declared 
illegal, as were also the practices of imprisoning without any 
crime being alleged, and of punishing refractory districts by 
billeting soldiers on them and the infliction of penalties by 
martial law. Charles tried to evade giving his assent, but 
had to yield. Parliament adjourned, and during the recess 
Buckingham was assassinated at Portsmouth. In spite of his 
death, a second expedition was sent to relieve Rochelle, but 
its commander, Lord Lindsey, could do nothing, and Rochelle, 
left to its fate„ surrendered. 

When Parliament reassembled in 1629, the Commons 
quarrelled with Charles because a member's goods had 
been seized for his refusal to pay the illegal tonnage and 
poundage. Charles twice ordered the House to adjourn. 



Charles I. 



2 73 



On the second occasion the Commons refused, and the 
Speaker, Finch, was held in the chair while three resolutions, 
proposed by Eliot, were passed. These denounced as be- 
trayers of the Commonwealth all who counselled or paid 
illegal taxation, and all who introduced innovations in 
religion. Parliament was at once dissolved, and Charles 
announced to the nation his intention to govern for the 
present without Parliament, on account of the late abuses. 
Eliot, Holies, Valentine, and six other members were im- 
prisoned. Eliot had moved the three resolutions, and Holies 
and Valentine had held the Speaker in the chair. They were 
accused of riotous and seditious conduct, but refused to plead, 
claiming privilege of Parliament. They were heavily fined, 
and for declining to pay were sent to prison. Eliot died in 
the Tower. 

5. Sir Thomas Wentworth. — During the last Parlia- 
ment the king had secured the support of one of his former 
opponents, Sir Thomas Wentworth. The latter had been an 
enemy of Buckingham, and had been one of the leaders of the 
Opposition at the beginning of the Parliament of 1628. But 
Buckingham's death, and probably the belief that the Commons 
were making claims which would destroy the constitution, had 
caused him to withdraw from the popular ranks and to take 
service with the king. He was created Baron Wentworth and 
made President of the Council of the North and a member of 
the Privy Council. If strength of character and commanding 
abilities could have saved the Stuart monarchy, Wentworth 
might have achieved the task ; but success required qualities in 
the king, which Charles did not possess. Charles never gave 
to Wentworth his entire confidence, and in the end sacrificed 
the great minister whose policy he had done so much to weaken. 

6. Archbishop Laud. — The beginning of the seventeenth 
century had seen a reaction amongst the Continental Pro- 
testants against Calvinism, and the movement was led by 
Arminius, a Dutch pastor. Calvinism was the current teaching 
of the Elizabethan Church, and James I, had learnt the same 
doctrines in Scotland. At the suggestion, therefore, of the 

T 



274 



Charles I. 



English king, a synod was held at Dort to deal with Arminianism. 
An English bishop, with other English divines, attended, 
and accepted the decrees of the synod upholding Calvinism. 
But the reaction against Calvinism continued to spread, 
and in England it found learned supporters in Andrewes, 
Cosin, and Laud. Under Charles I. the Arminian or High 
Church doctrines became the religion of the Court. Its 
defenders were at the same time staunch upholders of the. 
Divine Right of Kings, and this naturally made them the allies 
of the Government. But in proportion, as the High Church 
party drew away from Calvinism, they moved nearer to 
Catholic doctrines and practices, and thus roused the fierce 
opposition of the Puritans. Theirs were the "innovations" 
against which Parliament, in 1629, had protested, and, therefore, 
both on religious and political grounds, they came into conflict 
with the aims of Parliament. Neither party, High Church or 
Puritan, was in favour of toleration ; the question was which 
side should be able to enforce its views as the teaching of the 
Established Church. 

For the moment, under the guidance of Laud, Bishop of 
London, the High Church party was supreme, and when Laud, 
in 1633, became Archbishop of Canterbury, he made his 
influence strongly felt against the Puritans. Wielding the 
powers of High Commission, and backed by the Star Chamber, 
Laud insisted on rigid uniformity of worship, and through his 
efforts slovenliness and irreverence were put down. The Com- 
munion tables were everywhere removed from the body of the 
churches and set altar-wise against the east end of the church. 
These changes were bitterly resented, and even moderate men 
joined with the Puritans in denouncing Laud's supposed 
leanings to " Popery." The conversion of some leading men 
to Catholicism seemed to the terrified Puritans a proof that the 
Reformation was being undone. Virulent attacks were made 
on Laud's policy, and the archbishop retaliated by summoning 
his opponents before the Star Chamber. Prynne, Burton, and 
Bastwick were heavily fined and condemned to be imprisoned 
for life (1637). 



Charles I. 275 

7. Wentworth in Ireland (1633-1639). — In 1633 
Wentworth was made Lord Deputy of Ireland, and at once set 
himself to carry out the system of strong government, which he 
called the policy of " Thorough," the counterpart of Laud's 
policy in England. -In 1607 Elizabeth's old antagonist O'Neill, 
Earl of Tyrone, had fled abroad, and his estates were con- 
fiscated. Ulster was planted with English and Scottish settlers, 
and the native Irish were driven from their holdings. Went- 
worth determined to make Ireland a model of orderly govern- 
ment. The Castle Court acted like the English Star Chamber ; 
religious uniformity was enforced against the Protestants, while 
the Catholic worship was connived at. Agriculture was en- 
couraged, and the great linen industry of the north was started. 
In spite of Charles's fears, Wentworth summoned the Irish 
Parliament, and wrung from it large grants of money. " The 
king," Wentworth wrote, " is now as absolute here as any 
prince in the world can be, and may be still, if not spoiled on 
the other side." In 1639 he was summoned to England by 
Charles, and created Earl of Strafford. The " Rule of 
Thorough " in England was tottering to its fall, and Charles 
had need of his strongest supporter. 

8. Ship Money (1637). — Charles had throughout the un- 
parliamentary period the greatest difficulty in raising money, 
and he had to resort to all kinds of expedients, such as 
increased impositions, monopolies, and fines for breach of the 
forest rights of the Crown. These proving insufficient, writs 
were issued in 1634 ordering the sea ports to furnish ships or 
pay a composition. This was soon extended to inland districts, 
and Hampden, a Buckinghamshire squire, refused to pay. 
The case was tried before twelve judges, and seven declared 
against Hampden. 

9. Scottish Troubles (1637-1639).— In 1592 the Presby- 
terian system had been established in Scotland, but James 
soon found that he had consented to the existence of a 
religious organisation antagonistic to the authority of the 
Crown. He therefore began to retrace his steps, and in 1600 
succeeded in imposing bishops on the Scottish Kirks, three of 



276 Charles I. 

whom in 1610 went to England to receive consecration from 
the English bishops. James was, in fact, determined to undo 
partly the work of Knox and his followers, and to re-model the 
Kirk on the lines of the English Church, and this policy was 
continued with increasing vigour by Charles. Hitherto there 
had been little interference with the forms of worship of the 
Kirk, but in 1637, under the influence of Laud, the Scottish 
bishops issued a Prayer-book like that used in England, but in 
details emphasising more strongly the anti-Puritan position. 
The result was a riot at St. Giles's Church in Edinburgh, when 
the new service book was first used, and a general resistance 
throughout Scotland. Four committees, called " The Tables," 
were elected to represent the nobles, gentry, clergy, and 
burgesses, and this organisation usurped the functions of the 
Government. In 1 638 the National Covenant was drawn up 
and signed by all classes. In spite of the offers of Charles to 
revoke the Prayer-book, and limit the power of the bishops, 
the general assembly at Glasgow abolished episcopacy and re- 
established Presbyterianism. Charles thereupon resorted to 
force, and in 1639, by what is known as "The First Bishops' 
War," tried to crush Scottish opposition. But when his army 
reached Berwick he found himself confronted by a strong 
Scottish force, posted at Dunse Law under Alexander Leslie. 
Having no money to pay his troops, the king had to sign the 
Treaty of Berwick, by which the English army was to with- 
draw, and a free Parliament and assembly of Scotland were 
to be summoned. 

10. The Breakdown of the Rule of "Thorough" 
(1640). — Acting on Strafford's advice, Charles summoned an 
English Parliament. Pym and Hampden organised the Op- 
position, and the result was that, as soon as Parliament met, 
the Commons demanded redress of grievances before voting 
supplies. Charles offered to sell his ship-money rights for a 
million pounds, but negotiations broke down and Parliament 
was dissolved. It had sat for three weeks, and was in con- 
sequence known as the " Short Parliament." Meanwhile the 
Scottish Parliament had again decreed the abolition of 



Charles I. 277 

episcopacy, and Charles determined on a second attempt at 
coercion. The "Second Bishops' War" was even more futile 
than the first. The English soldiers sympathised with the 
Scots, and the latter, crossing the Tweed, easily routed the 
royal forces at Newburn, near Newcastle. Charles had to 
agree to the Treaty of Ripon, by which he guaranteed to the 
Scots ^"850 a day to pay their troops, and left Northumberland 
and Durham in their hands as security. As a last resort 
Charles summoned a great Council of peers to York, but it 
only re-echoed the demand for a Parliament. Writs for the 
elections were therefore issued. 

1 1. First Session of the Long Parliament (1640-1641). 
— The position of the English Parliament was unprecedented, 
for the presence of the Scots afforded a guarantee against a 
hasty dissolution. The aims of the party, led by Pym and 
Hampden, were to restore what they considered to be the true 
balance of power between king and Parliament. To effect 
this, it was necessary to get rid of the agents of the king, 
Strafford, Laud, and others, who had upheld the Stuart system, 
and to abolish the despotic agencies, the Star Chamber and the 
High Commission, on which that system relied. Arrangements 
must also be made to prevent the suspension of Parliament and 
to limit the power of the bishops. 

As soon as Parliament met, Pym moved the impeachment 
of Strafford and Laud, and they were sent to the Tower. In 
1 641 the trial of Strafford began in Westminster Hall. The 
chief charges were drawn from Strafford's government in 
Ireland, but, even admitting their arbitrary character, it was 
clear that they could not be construed as treason as defined by 
statute under Edward III. Treason was an offence against 
the king, and English law was silent on the subject of 
treason against the nation. The Commons, therefore, brought 
forward some notes of a speech of Strafford in the Privy 
Council, in which he had said, " You have an army in Ireland 
which you may employ here to reduce this kingdom." The 
discussion was admittedly about Scotland, but the Commons 
insisted that " this kingdom " meant England. Seeing, however, 



27$ 



Charles L 



that' the Lords would not convict, the Commons dropped the 
impeachment and passed a bill of attainder against Strafford. 
It was accepted by the Lords, and Charles, under threats of 
mob violence against the queen, gave his assent. Before the 
opening of Parliament he had guaranteed Strafford's safety. 
" Put not your trust in princes," was the comment wrung from 
Strafford by the cowardice of his royal master. On May 12 
he was beheaded. 

The first session of the Long Parliament was also made 
memorable by a series of Acts sweeping away the system of 
government, which in substance had been in force since the 
accession of the Tudors. The Triennial Act (1641) ordered 
that Parliament should meet every three years, and provided 
machinery for its summons in case the king neglected to call it 
together. Another Act ordered that the existing Parliament 
should not be dissolved without its consent, a measure which 
made it independent of both king and nation. The Star 
Chamber, the High Commission, and the Council of the North, 
were abolished. Tonnage and poundage and impositions, 
without the consent of Parliament, were declared illegal. Ship 
money was disallowed, and the decision of the judges in the 
Hampden Case was reversed. Fines for distraint of knight- 
hood were prohibited, and an Act was passed for the limitation 
of the forests. With these sweeping measures accomplished, 
Parliament adjourned. 

12. The Royalist Reaction. — In the summer of 1641 
Charles went to Scotland, hoping to win over the Scots to his 
side by large concessions. During his absence a reaction in 
his favour took place in England. Hitherto the king had 
found few supporters in the Commons, but the threatening 
aspect of the religious question, combined with the feeling that 
the king had made every concession which could be justly 
demanded, won over to his side a considerable body of 
moderate men. Presbyterianism had little hold on the English 
people, and the proposal, brought forward with the support of 
Pym and Hampden, to abolish episcopacy " root and branch," 
roused the alarm of a large party led by Hyde, Falkland, and 



Charles I. 279 

Culpepper, who were opposed to further changes. The tension 
was increased by rumours of army plots against Parliament, 
and by an obscure transaction in Scotland, the " Incident," 
which was an attempt to arrest the Scottish Presbyterian 
leaders. Charles in vain repudiated all complicity in it. 
About the same time news came of a rebellion in Ireland. 
Strafford had begun the " plantation " of Connaught, and after 
his departure the plan was pushed on, together with schemes 
for the persecution of the Catholics. The native Irish, after 
attempting to seize Dublin, attacked the Ulster Protestants 
and killed several thousands. Charles was accused of being 
responsible for the outbreak through his intrigues with the 
Irish. 

When Parliament reassembled Pym brought forward the 
Grand Remonstrance. This recapitulated the grievances of 
the reign and demanded the appointment of ministers who 
had the confidence of Parliament and a Parliamentary reform 
of religion. The demands were opposed by Hyde and 
Falkland, and the Remonstrance was only carried by a 
majority of eleven. It was. presented to the king on his 
return from Scotland, and he was now definitely joined by 
Hyde and other members who were opposed to Pym. 

13. The Rupture between King and Parliament 
(1642). — Backed as he now was by a large party in both 
Houses, Charles seemed again able to control events. But he 
threw away the advantages of his position by ordering the 
impeachment of Pym, Hampden, Haselrigg, Holies, Strode, and 
Lord Kimbolton. They were accused of having invited the 
Scots to invade England in 1640. Fearing that the Commons 
would not surrender the accused, Charles went down in person 
to the House to arrest the five members. But he found that 
they had taken refuge in the city, and his violent action only 
increased the bitter feeling against him. Charles left London, 
not to return till seven years later as a prisoner to meet his trial. 

Negotiations still continued, and in February, 1642, the 
king gave his assent to the last two bills of his reign. By the 
Clerical Disabilities Act the bishops were removed from the 



280 Charles I. 

House of Lords, and by the Impressment Act troops were 
ordered to be raised to serve in Ireland. This Act brought 
the militia question into prominence. Parliament felt that the 
forces thus levied might be used against it, and demanded 
the appointment of the Lords Lieutenant who controlled the 
militia. Charles refused, and Parliament assumed the right by 
an ordinance of the two Houses. On August 22, 1642, the 
king set up his standard at Nottingham. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

AD. 

Petition of Right 1628. 

Death of Buckingham 1628. 

The Rule of Thorough 1629-1640. 

Ship-money case 1637. 

Scottish Rebellion 1639. 

Short Parliament 1640. 

Execution of Strafford 1641. 

Grand Remonstrance 1641. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

CHARLES I. (1625- 1 649). 

(2) The Civil War (1642-1649). 

I. The Campaign of 1642. — The strength of the king's 
party lay in the north and west, and that of Parliament in 
south-eastern districts, but there was no sharp dividing line, 
and the predominance of parties had to be settled by fighting 
in the different counties. The king had on his side the 
majority of the nobility and country squires, and all Church- 
men who feared the narrow Presbyterianism which Parliament 
aimed at establishing. The Catholics loyally supported the 
king. On the other side the yeomanry, especially in the 
eastern counties, were for Parliament, and London led the 
great towns in upholding the Parliamentary cause. The navy 
also went over to the same side. The royal forces were 
commanded by the Earl of Lindsey, and the Parliamentary 
troops by the Earl of Essex. 

In September, Charles, at the head of an army, drawn 
largely from Wales, Cornwall and the north, advanced from 
Shrewsbury, southwards towards London. At Edgehill, in 
Warwickshire, he was overtaken by Essex, and the first battle 
was fought. The struggle was indecisive. Prince Rupert, the 
son of the Elector Palatine, who commanded the horse, easily 
routed the horsemen opposed to him and pursued them from 
the field, but the royalist infantry, after being hotly engaged, 
fell back. Night put an end to the fight, and Essex withdrew 
towards Warwick. Charles therefore continued his march 
towards London, but on reaching Brentford, in Middlesex, 
found the London train-bands entrenched at Turnham Green. 

281 



ENGLAND & WALES 
during the Civil Wars. 

English Miles 
o 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 



-Scifly Is 




W'aiker & Cockerell sc. 



Charles I. 283 

Fearing to attack them, Charles retreated on Oxford. In other 
directions there were proofs that the king's party was stronger 
than had been expected. In Yorkshire Lord Fairfax, on 
behalf of Parliament, could not resist the royalist Earl of 
Newcastle, and in the west Sir Ralph Hopton was supreme 
in Cornwall and Devon. In the eastern counties, on the other 
hand, an association was formed, of which Oliver Cromwell was 
the guiding spirit, to keep the war from extending eastwards, 
and to conquer Lincolnshire. 

2. The Campaign of 1643. — This year was disastrous 
for Parliament in nearly every direction. The Earl of New- 
castle defeated Lord Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas Fairfax 
at Adwalton Moor and besieged Hull. In the west Hopton 
cleared the enemy out of Cornwall by a victory at Stratton, 
and, marching eastward, overthrew Sir William Waller on 
Lansdown, near Bath. A week later Waller was disastrously 
defeated at Roundway Down, near Devizes. Prince Rupert 
stormed Bristol, and practically the whole of the west, except 
Plymouth and Gloucester, was in royalist hands. 

The king's plan had been for his three main armies to 
converge on London from the north, west, and centre, and 
finish the war at a blow. But he was impeded by the dislike 
of his northern and western troops to leave their districts, and 
he therefore laid siege to Gloucester. Essex at once marched 
to its relief, and Charles raised the siege and posted his army 
at Newbury, in Berkshire, to cut off Essex from retiring on 
London. A fierce battle was fought, but Essex held his own, 
and during the night Charles retreated to Oxford, thus allowing 
Essex to pursue his march unmolested. In the east the 
Associated Counties scored a victory at Winceby through the 
skill of Colonel Cromwell, who had raised a well disciplined 
body of cavalry. 

3. The Campaign of 1644. — It was clear that neither 
king nor Parliament was strong enough to strike a decisive 
blow, and during the autumn of 1643 both sides appealed for 
help from outside. The king summoned the Irish to his aid, 
while Parliament relied on the Scots. Pym's last act before 



284 Charles I. 

his death was to negotiate an agreement known as the Solemn 
League and Covenant, by which the Scots agreed to come to 
the aid of Parliament, and the latter pledged itself to put down 
"popery and prelacy," and to establish a form of Church 
government in the three kingdoms as nearly uniform as 
possible. In Ireland the Catholics had appointed a Supreme 
Council to rule the revolted districts, and they offered their 
support to Charles in return for concessions. The king agreed 
to a truce which liberated his forces in Ireland for service 
against the English Parliament. By the terms of the truce, 
known as the " Cessation," the whole of Ireland, except the 
coast-line from Belfast to Dublin and the district round Cork, 
was left in the hands of the Confederated Catholics ; in return 
the Supreme Council granted ,£30,000 to be spent on the 
regiments to be transported to England. Early in 1644 the 
English regiments, which had been released from service in 
Ireland, landed in Wales and advanced into Cheshire. They 
were met at Nantvvich by a Parliamentary force under Sir 
Thomas Fairfax, and were completely routed. The only 
effect of the king's Irish schemes was to embitter public 
opinion against him. 

On January 19, 1644, the Scots had crossed the Tweed 
under the command of Leslie, Earl of Leven, and a month later 
a committee of both kingdoms, consisting of representatives of 
the English and Scottish Parliaments, was appointed to super- 
intend military operations. Leslie and Fairfax effected a 
junction and besieged Newcastle's army in York. Prince 
Rupert, with a large force of cavalry, was detached from the 
army in the Midlands to relieve the city. He found that the 
enemy had been reinforced by the arrival of the army of 
the Eastern Association under Lord Manchester and Cromwell. 
As Rupert advanced the English and Scottish forces fell back 
on Marston Moor. Here one of the great decisive battles 
of the Civil War was fought on July 2. The royalist left 
drove the forces under Fairfax from the field, but on the right, 
after a fierce struggle, Cromwell's horsemen routed the cavalry 
under Rupert, and then closed on the royalist centre. The 



Charles I. 285 

royal army was scattered, Rupert withdrew with 5000 men, 
and York surrendered. The Marquis of Newcastle, disgusted 
by Rupert's interference, retired to Holland. The fruit of 
the victory of Marston Moor was the conquest of the north. 

In the rest of England Parliament met with a series of 
disasters. Waller had gained a success over Hopton at 
Cheriton, and Essex, led a large army into the west, hoping 
to strike a decisive blow. But Waller was checked by Charles 
at Cropredy Bridge, and his army melted away. This enabled 
Charles to pursue Essex, who retreated into Cornwall, but 
was surrounded at Lostwithiel. Essex escaped in an open 
boat, and his infantry surrendered. To remedy this disaster, 
Parliament summoned Manchester and the army of the Eastern 
Association to defend London. Manchester proved an in- 
effective genera], and the second battle of Newbury was 
indecisive. Charles retreated to Oxford. 

4. The Self-denying Ordinance (1645). — During the 
winter Parliament had attempted negotiations with the king 
at Uxbridge, but these failed because Parliament demanded 
the control of the militia, the acceptance of the Covenant by 
the king, and penalties on the king's supporters. Parliament, 
however, held one of the king's greatest supporters, Archbishop 
Laud, who had remained in prison since 1641. He was 
now condemned, and was executed on Tower Hill. His 
death afforded a proof of the fierce intolerance by which the 
dominant Presbyterian party was animated. The Presbyterians, 
who controlled Parliament, were, however, gradually losing 
ground, and found themselves threatened by the rise of a new 
religious party, the Independents. These objected to the Pres- 
byterian policy of controlling religion by Parliament, and were 
in favour of the independence of each individual congregation, 
and of a certain amount of toleration. The Independents com- 
prised men of widely different views, but they had a strong 
party in the army, and could rely on the support of Cromwell, 
who was now rapidly making himself indispensable. 

Cromwell had from the first seen that religious enthusiasm 
could alone inspire in the troops of Parliament a fervour equal 



286 Charles I. 

to the chivalry and loyalty of the Cavaliers. He had proved 
himself a great cavalry leader in the field, and he resented the 
half-hearted manner in which Essex and Manchester conducted 
operations. If the war was to be ended it must be fought out 
by a standing army, and not by one in which soldiers melted 
away after each campaign to follow their civil pursuits. To 
carry out his plans, Cromwell supported two measures, the 
Self-denying Ordinance and the Remodelling of the Army. 
The former ordered the members of either House who held 
any military or civil appointment to resign, on the understand- 
ing that they might be reappointed. This shelved Manchester, 
Essex, and Waller. The latter created a permanent army, the 
" New Model," under Sir Thomas Fairfax. Cromwell, who had 
resigned with the other leaders, was appointed lieutenant- 
general, with the command of the cavalry. The troops, many 
of whom were veterans, received regular pay and were care- 
fully drilled. The officers, as a rule, were Independents, but 
Cromwell was not the man to look too closely into the 
religious beliefs of a good soldier. 

5. The Campaign of 1645. — Early in May Charles left 
Oxford with the intention of marching northwards, but on 
reaching Droitwich he turned south. Leicester was captured 
by Rupert, and Fairfax was therefore ordered to pursue the 
royal army. He came into collision with the king at Naseby, 
in Nottinghamshire. Cromwell had joined Fairfax two days 
earlier with his contingent of cavalry, and mainly through his 
generalship a great victory was won. 

As far as England was concerned the hopes of the Royalists 
were dashed to the ground, but in Scotland there were still 
possibilities of ultimate success. The Marquis of Montrose, 
in 1644, had come forward to lead the party opposed to the 
Marquis of Argyle, the head of the clan of the Campbells and 
the leader of the Presbyterian party. Montrose was appointed 
by Charles to be lieutenant-general of Scotland, and roused the 
Highland clans which were hostile to the Campbells. He 
defeated the Covenanters at Tippermuir, near Perth, captured 
Aberdeen, and early in 1645 inflicted a crushing defeat on the 



Charles I. 287 

Campbells at Inverlochy. A further victory at Kilsyth enabled 
him to occupy Glasgow, and the submission of the Lowlands 
followed. 

Meanwhile, after Naseby, Charles had retired to Hereford, 
where he gathered an army of 7000 men. He had besides 
this an army in the west under Goring, and he secretly sent 
to Ireland promising freedom of worship to Catholics in 
return for armed assistance. Fairfax, however, led an army 
into the west and stormed Bridgwater and Bristol. To save 
Chester, his last important stronghold, Charles moved north- 
wards, but was defeated at Rowton Heath. Three days later 
he learnt that Montrose had been overthrown. It had proved 
impossible for Montrose to prevent his Highland followers 
returning home, and, weakened by their defection, he was 
defeated by David Leslie at Philiphaugh. The Royalist cause 
in England and Scotland was now practically ruined. Hopton 
was compelled to disband his forces in March, 1646, and in 
June Oxford surrendered. Before this Charles had resolved 
to throw himself on the loyalty of the Scots, and travelling 
secretly northwards he surrendered at the Scottish camp at 
Newark. He was forthwith removed to Newcastle. 

6. Negotiations with the Scots and Parliament 
(1646-1647).— The king's motive in surrendering was the belief 
that, although beaten in the field, he would be able to take 
advantage of the divisions amongst his enemies, and be able, 
as he said, " so to draw either Presbyterians or Independents 
to side with me for extirpating one another, that I shall be 
really king again." But events soon showed that the stern 
realities of the situation were not to be avoided by a shifty 
diplomacy. The Scots at once pressed Charles to accept the 
Covenant, and declared their loyal adhesion to their allies, the 
English Parliament. Negotiations were opened at Newcastle 
between the king and commissioners representing Parliament 
and the Scots, but Charles, faithful to the English Church, 
refused to abandon episcopacy. Had he been willing to do 
so he might then and there have counted on the swords of 
his Scottish subjects. Negotiations therefore broke down, 



288 Charles I. 

and the Scots, having received from Parliament the arrears 
of pay due to them, retired beyond the Tweed, and left the 
king in the hands of Parliamentary commissioners (February, 
1647). 

With the withdrawal of the Scots and the removal of the 
king to Holmby House in Northamptonshire, the climax of 
the successes of Parliament had been reached. But the 
achievement of their aims did not blind the Presbyterians to 
the real weakness of their position. The Independents in the 
army were as much opposed to the supremacy of Parliament 
over religion as to that of the Crown, and the army having 
won the victories, was determined to have a voice in the final 
settlement. The Presbyterians, therefore, seeing that power 
was slipping from them, abandoned the attempt to coerce the 
king, and in return for the nominal concession on the part of 
Charles of the establishment of Presbyterianism for three 
years, they agreed to restore the royal authority to its position 
at the end of the first session of the Long Parliament. In 
pursuance of this agreement Parliament attempted to disband 
the greater part of the army. Unfortunately for the Pres- 
byterians the pay of the soldiers was in arrears, and the 
army, finding that only a small portion of the arrears was to 
be paid, refused to disband. Cromwell was anxious to keep 
the army from a rupture with Parliament, but he learnt that 
the Presbyterians were prepared to support a Scottish invasion 
and royalist risings on behalf of the king. He therefore 
authorised the removal of the king from Holmby House to 
Hampton Court. Parliament in vain threatened vengeance. 
The army denounced eleven of the Presbyterian leaders, 
and entered London. The eleven members withdrew to the 
Continent, but the army remained near London, ready to 
enforce its demands. 

7. The Heads of the Proposals of the Army (1647). 
—The terms which the army now offered to the king were 
the most statesmanlike attempts yet made to arrive at a satis- 
factory settlement. The army aimed at steering a middle 
course between the despotism of the king and the tyranny of 



Charles I. 289 

Parliament. Hence the king was to surrender the control of the 
militia for ten years, and for seven years a Council of State 
was to conduct foreign policy. The Episcopal and Presbyterian 
systems were both to be sanctioned, and there was to be re- 
ligious toleration except in the case of Catholics. Parliaments 
were to be biennial, and to be made more truly representative 
by a reform of the electorate abolishing rotten boroughs. The 
king unfortunately had no intention of accepting these terms. 
He had secretly sent to ask for Scottish help, and, to place 
himself beyond the reach of the army, he fled to the Isle 
of Wight (November, 1647). He found himself, however, 
practically a prisoner in Carisbrooke Castle. 

8. The Second Civil War (1648).— The result of the 
king's attempt to regain power by playing off his enemies 
against one another, seemed for the moment to promise success. 
He concluded in December, 1647, an Engagement with the 
Scots by which he agreed to establish Presbyterianism for three 
years in return for their armed intervention. The English 
Parliament, suspicious of Scottish interference, and irritated 
by the king's duplicity, passed the " Vote of No Addresses," 
breaking off all relations with Charles. Risings followed in 
Wales and Kent, and there were signs in other directions 
of a royalist reaction. A Scottish army, under the Duke of 
Hamilton, invaded England. The Kentish rising was easily 
suppressed by Fairfax, while Cromwell crushed Hamilton's 
army at Preston. The army, finding that during its absence 
Parliament had re-opened negotiations with the -king at 
Newport, advanced on London. Colonel Pride carried out 
what was known as " Pride's Purge," the exclusion of 143 
members of Parliament, and the remaining members, subse- 
quently nick-named the Rump, voted the appointment of a 
High Court of Justice for the trial of the king. Charles 
was brought to Westminster, but refused to recognise the 
jurisdiction of the court. He took his stand on the ground 
that it was Parliament and not the Crown which had broken 
the fundamental laws of the kingdom. The sentence was 
a foregone conclusion, and the king redeemed the errors of 

u 



290 Charles I. 

his life, and the failure of his cause by the noble constancy 
with which he met his death. He was executed on January 
30, 1649, before the palace at Whitehall. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Battle of Edgehill 1642. 

First Battle of Newbury 1643. 

The Solemn League and Covenant .... 1643. 

Battle of Marston Moor 1644. 

Defeat of Essex at Lostwithiel 1644. 

Second Battle of Newbury 1644. 

Self-denying Ordinance 1645. 

Battle of Naseby 1645. 

Charles handed over to Parliament .... 1647. 

Second Civil War 1648. 

Execution of Charles 1 1649. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE COMMONWEALTH (1649-1660). 

1. The Agreement of the People (1649).— The execution 
of Charles I. was the act of the army clothed in a parody of 
constitutional forms. The death warrant had been signed 
by a minority of the High Court of Justice, and that court 
itself was the creation of the Rump, the insignificant remnant 
of the Long Parliament. Thus the attempt to restore the 
constitution as it had existed in the fifteenth century, before 
the advent of the Tudors, had hopelessly broken down, and 
had ended in establishing the power of the sword. The army 
had proved itself powerful to destroy; but its attempts to 
govern in defiance of the wishes of the great majority of the 
nation were foredoomed to failure. In the end a restoration 
of the monarchy became inevitable, because without the king 
Parliamentary government was impossible. 

A fortnight before the king's death, the Council of the 
army published the Agreement of the People, a scheme for 
a republican constitution. It was realised that with the 
abolition of the monarchy the danger of a Parliamentary 
despotism would be increased, and hence to provide safe- 
guards a written constitution was devised by which Parlia- 
ment itself should be bound. There was to be a Parliament 
consisting of one House, elected biennially by a reformed 
electorate, and Parliament was to appoint an Executive Council. 
There was to be a public profession of Christianity " reformed 
to the greatest purity in doctrine, worship, and discipline," 
but those who differed from it were not to incur penalties. 
This toleration, however, was not necessarily to extend to 

291 



292 The Commonwealth. 

" popery or prelacy." The Article on religion and six other 
points were to be fundamental, and placed outside the legisla- 
tive powers of Parliament. Troubles in Ireland and Scotland 
made the carrying out of this scheme impossible for the time 
being, but it remained as a record of the avowed aims of 
the army. 

2. Cromwell in Ireland (1649-1650). — The death of 
the king was followed by the proclamation of the Common- 
wealth, and by the abolition of the House of Lords as " useless 
and dangerous." A Council of State of forty-one members was 
set up ; but as most of them were members of Parliament, and 
the Rump was only attended by about fifty members, the 
executive and legislature were practically identical. The 
extremists in the army, known as the Levellers, were dis- 
gusted at this oligarchical arrangement, and mutinied; but 
the danger was stopped by Cromwell's vigorous measures. 

Since the truce of 1643, between Charles and the Con- 
federated Catholics, the English influence in Ireland had rapidly 
diminished. In 1645 Charles had been compelled to apply 
to the Irish Catholics for help, and his agent, the Catholic 
Earl of Glamorgan, had signed a treaty guaranteeing the 
restoration of Catholic worship ; but the king had found 
himself obliged to repudiate Glamorgan's action, and Ormond, 
the Lord-lieutenant, to avoid surrendering Dublin to the 
Catholics, placed it in the hands of Parliament. Quarrels 
broke out amongst the Confederates ; and the Papal Nuncio 
Rinuccini, who had been sent to organise the movement, left 
the country. After the king's execution, Charles II. was 
at once proclaimed, and Ormond, who had returned to 
Ireland, formed a coalition between the Irish Catholic lords 
and the Protestant loyalists. 

In August, 1649, Cromwell, as Lord-lieutenant, landed in 
Ireland with a large army. Shortly before his arrival, Ormond, 
while besieging Dublin, had been defeated at Rathmines by 
the Parliamentary forces under Michael Jones. Cromwell, 
therefore, found that to defeat the coalition he must undertake 
a series of sieges. In September he stormed Drogheda. 



The Commonwealth. 293 

and put the garrison of 2000 men to the sword, and a few- 
weeks later the garrison of Wexford, together with many 
of the inhabitants, was slaughtered. The terror caused by 
these atrocious acts of war broke down the Irish resistance, 
and the towns surrendered in rapid succession. In 1650 
Cromwell was recalled to England, leaving his son-in-law, 
Ireton, and Ludlow, to finish the conquest. By their 
exertions the war was carried on with ruthless severity. 
Plague and famine completed the work of the sword, and 
in 1652 the peace of desolation settled upon the unhappy 
country. It has been computed, that out of a population of 
a million and a half over 600,000 perished. Catholic worship 
was suppressed, and the priests ministered to the people at 
the risk of their lives. In 1652 the English Parliament, 
treating the Irish as a conquered race, ordered the inhabitants 
of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, to remove themselves across 
the Shannon into Connaught and Clare. Here they were 
to settle on the land which had been laid waste. The con- 
fiscated lands were given to Cromwell's veterans. Many of 
the exiles died of starvation ; while thousands of women, boys, 
and girls, were sold as slaves in the West Indies. Over 
40,000 Irishmen went into exile and enlisted in the service 
of France and Spain. The inhuman work begun by Cromwell, 
and carried out by his successors, left behind it a legacy of 
hatred, which has never been obliterated. 

3. Cromwell in Scotland (1650-1651). — Cromwell had 
been recalled from Ireland because of the threatening state 
of affairs in Scotland. Charles II. had been proclaimed king 
on the death of his father, but the Scots demanded his 
acceptance of the Covenant. To do this would mean that 
Charles placed himself in the hands of the Campbell party, 
and before yielding Charles sent the gallant Montrose to rouse 
the royalist Highlanders. Montrose's expedition failed, and 
he was captured and executed at Edinburgh. Charles there- 
upon fell back on his second line of action, and, landing in 
Scotland, took the Covenant, and was crowned at Scone 
(January, 1651). The English Government replied by raising 




Walker # Cockerell SC 



The Commonwealth. 295 

an army, and as Fairfax refused to serve, command was given 
to Cromwell, with Fleetwood, Lambert, and Monk, as his lieu- 
tenants. The army entered Scotland in July, 1650, supported 
by a fleet, but Cromwell found it impossible to dislodge the 
Scots under David Leslie from their entrenchments outside 
Edinburgh, and had to retreat to Dunbar. The Scots at once 
occupied the road along which further retreat southwards 
was possible, while their main body held a position impossible 
to assault. Cromwell seemed placed between the alternatives 
of starvation or surrender, when the Scots, tired of inaction, 
left their position and advanced to attack the English. 
At the battle of Dunbar they were completely routed, and 
Edinburgh surrendered to Cromwell. Leslie entrenched 
himself near Stirling. 

In 1 65 1 Cromwell marched on Perth, intending to cut off 
Leslie's supplies from the north. By doing so he left the road 
into England practically undefended. Charles and Leslie 
therefore broke up the camp at Stirling, and by a series of 
forced marches made for England. Cromwell, who had 
considered the possibility of this movement, set out in pur- 
suit, leaving Monk to command in Scotland. Lambert was 
detached to harass the enemy on their march south through 
Lancashire, while Cromwell himself advanced through the 
counties of Northumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, into the 
Midlands. Charles had counted on popular risings in his 
favour, but was disappointed by the smallness of the number 
of recruits who joined him. As the road to London was 
barred, he turned towards Worcester. Here, on September 3, 
1 65 1, the last battle of the civil war was fought. Charles 
could only muster 13,000 men against Cromwell's army of 
30,000, and the royalists, as completely out-generalled as they 
were outnumbered, were easily defeated. The "crowning 
mercy " of Worcester, as Cromwell termed it, took place on 
the anniversary of his victory at Dunbar. Charles escaped 
south, and, after many romantic adventures, took ship to 
France. The greater part of Scotland submitted to Monk. 

4. War with Holland (1652-1653).— In 1648 the 



296 The Commonwealth. 

peace of Westphalia brought the Thirty Years' War to an end, 
and the religious question was settled on the basis of the 
principle "cujus regio ejus religio." Wars for religion were 
now over ; in their place came wars for commerce and territory, 
which were waged independently of religious affinities. For 
many years there had been trouble between the English and 
Dutch in the East Indies, and the English were especially 
jealous of the great monopoly of the carrying trade which 
the Dutch possessed. In 165 1 the Navigation Act ordered that 
goods imported into England might only be brought in 
English ships, or in ships of the country which produced the 
goods. The result of this blow at the Dutch carrying trade 
was a war with Holland. The command of the English fleet 
was given to Blake, who had distinguished himself in the 
civil war, but till 1649, when he commanded a squadron 
against Prince Rupert, had never been to sea. A series of 
battles were fought between the English and Dutch fleets with 
varying results. In 1652 Blake was defeated by Van Tromp, 
but in 1653 the English admiral, after a drawn battle off Port- 
land, defeated the Dutch near the North Foreland, and captured 
eleven ships. In 1654 Holland came to terms, acknowledged 
the supremacy of the English in the Channel, and submitted 
to the Navigation Act. 

5. The Fall of the Rump (1653). — In its scheme, the 
" Agreement of the People " the army had proposed that the 
Rump should be dissolved in April, 1649. This had been 
prevented by the fact that the army had been occupied since 
1649 in Ireland and Scotland; but with the overthrow of the 
royalists at Worcester (1651), the army felt that the time had 
come for the carrying out of its aims. The members of the 
Rump, on the other hand, were with difficulty brought to 
consider the dissolution of Parliament; and many of them 
were accused with justice of taking bribes, and of using their 
position to promote the interest of their relations. At last 
the Rump, under pressure from the politicians of the army, 
agreed to dissolve in 1653 ; but this only brought into relief 
the difficulty that a free Parliament was impossible, because it 



The Commonwealth. 297 

would certainly contain a majority hostile to the Common- 
wealth. The Rump therefore proposed that only the seats 
rendered vacant by " Pride's Purge " and other expulsions 
should be filled up by election. The present members of the 
Rump were to continue to sit without re-election, and were 
to form a committee with power to exclude any of the new 
members whose loyalty to the Government was suspected. 
Cromwell had been unwilling to use force, but this attempt 
of the Rump to perpetuate its oligarchical rule roused fierce 
resentment in the army, and forced him to act decisively. 
On April 20, 1653, he appeared at Westminster with a guard 
of soldiers. He quietly took his seat as a private member, 
and listened to the debate on the Bill, in which the selfish aims 
of the Rump to prolong its power were embodied. But when 
the Speaker put the question to the House " that this Bill do 
pass," Cromwell started up and accused the assembly collectively 
and individually of corruption, injustice, and oppression. The 
soldiers were called in ; the Speaker was ejected from his chair, 
and the members were ordered out of the House. Pointing 
to the mace, the symbol of Parliamentary authority, Cromwell 
ordered the " bauble " to be taken away. " It is you " he 
cried to the departing members, "that have forced me to 
do this, for I have sought the Lord night and day, that He 
would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of this work." 

6. The Barebone's Parliament (1653).— With the dis- 
solution of the Rump the last vestiges of the ancient con- 
stitution had disappeared. Kings, Lords, and Commons, had 
in turn been swept away by the power of the sword; and 
Cromwell, although he might strive to disguise the fact under 
the forms of constitutional government, had established a 
military despotism. He had yet to learn how little the army 
represented the wishes of the nation at large. 

A week after the fall of the Rump, a Council of State, 
consisting of seven military men and three civilians, was 
created, and shortly after writs were issued summoning 140 
persons to appear at Whitehall. This assembly of nominees 
of the party in power, contemptuously called by its enemies 



298 The Commonwealth. 

" Barebone's Parliament," after one of its members, was 
addressed by Cromwell in a spirit of religious exaltation, 
and was invited to establish the rule of godliness and carry 
out the work which they, the " chosen saints," were to 
execute to the honour of God. Many of the members were 
men of distinction, but the assembly contained a large propor- 
tion of unpractical fanatics. Large schemes of reform were 
discussed, such as the abolition of tithes and of the Court of 
Chancery ; but it was soon clear that the rule of the " saints " 
would lead to anarchy. The minority of the assembly, there- 
fore, by a vote obtained in the absence of their opponents, 
resigned all powers into Cromwell's hands. 

7. The Instrument of Government (1653). — Cromwell, 
in December, 1653, announced his intention of governing in 
accordance with the " Instrument of Government," a scheme 
sanctioned by the army, by which a monarchical form of 
government was again set up. Cromwell was to be Lord 
Protector, and was to rule with a Council of State and a 
Parliament of one House. Parliament was to be elected 
triennially by a reformed electorate, and to sit for five months. 
The Council was nominated in the Instrument, and councillors 
were appointed for life. When a vacancy occurred Parliament 
was to send in six names ; two of these were to be selected by 
the Council, and from these two the new councillor was to be 
chosen by the Protector. The Protector's appointments to the 
highest offices were to be approved by Parliament. Scotland 
and Ireland were to send representatives to Parliament. The 
aim of the Instrument was to limit the power of the Protector 
and of Parliament by means of an independent Council. Like 
the constitution planned by the Agreement of the People in 
1649, the new constitution was not to be altered by Parliamen- 
tary enactment. 

8. The First Protectorate Parliament (1654).— As 
soon as Parliament met, the incompatibility between a military 
despotism and a Parliamentary system at once appeared. The 
members refused to recognise the new constitution as beyond 
their criticisms, and proposed to amend it so as to increase the 



The Commonwealth. 299 

power of Parliament. Cromwell thereupon explained that, 
while willing to accept modifications of the Instrument, certain 
principles in it were fundamental, and he insisted on a written 
acknowledgment of the Government " as it is settled in a 
single person and in Parliament." Those members who refused 
were excluded from the House. But even with this " purified " 
Parliament, agreement proved impossible on those points of 
the new constitution which Cromwell regarded as fundamental. 
On the questions of religious toleration and the control of the 
army no compromise could be arranged. Both Protector and 
Parliament were sincerely anxious to establish a government 
which should be a civil and not a military authority, but neither 
side dared to appeal to the nation to settle the questions at 
issue, because the majority of the nation was opposed to that 
cause which Cromwell called " the glorious cause of the people 
of God." On January 22, 1655, therefore, Cromwell, realising 
the failure of his aims, dissolved Parliament. 

9. The Major=Generals (1655). — The discord between 
the Protector and Parliament naturally encouraged the royalists, 
and a Cavalier rising took place in Wiltshire, where a royalist 
gentleman, Penruddock, seized the judges who had come to 
hold the assizes at Salisbury. Cromwell for the time being 
gave up all attempt at constitutional government. The country 
was divided into ten districts each ruled by a major-general, 
responsible to Cromwell himself. A tax of ten per cent, on their 
incomes, known as the " Decimation," was ordered to be levied 
on the royalists, and regulations were issued against the use of 
the Prayer-book, which hitherto had been connived at by the 
Government. A series of instructions was published, ordering 
a system of police regulations to deal with the social and moral 
life of the nation. Royalists implicated in the risings were 
transported to Barbados, and throughout the country supporters 
of the Stuarts were forced to give up their arms. 

10. The Humble Petition and Advice (1657).— In 
September, 1656, Cromwell, having stamped out opposition, 
returned to his constitutional experiments. Parliament was 
summoned, and the Protector, after excluding a hundred of 



300 The Commonwealth. 

his opponents, secured a majority in his favour. Money was 
required for the war with Spain, which had broken out in 1654, 
and when Parliament voted the sums he required, Cromwell 
abolished the major-generals. The success of Cromwell's 
foreign policy, and the discovery of a plot for his assassination ; 
revived his popularity, and in March, 1657, Parliament pre- 
sented the " Humble Petition and Advice." The effect of this 
was to urge the restoration of the kingship with Cromwell in 
the place of the Stuarts. Cromwell refused the title of king, 
but he was given the right to nominate his successor and the 
life members of the Upper House of Parliament which was 
to be created. The Protector, however, promised not to 
exclude members of Parliament, and as soon as the hundred 
members were readmitted the old difficulties revived. Quar- 
rels arose between the two Houses, and Cromwell dissolved 
Parliament. 

11. Cromwell's Foreign Policy (1654-1658). — When 
Cromwell came into power, after the fall of the Rump, he 
found the war with Holland still raging, but in 1654 peace was 
signed. To please Cromwell, and to deprive the Stuart 
dynasty of Dutch support, the Assembly of the province of 
Holland passed an Act excluding William of Orange, grandson 
of Charles I., from the office of Stadtholder. In 1655 Crom- 
well was called upon to decide between France and Spain, 
which were still at war, although the Thirty Years' War had 
ceased in 1648, as far as Germany was concerned. Both 
countries made offers of alliance to Cromwell. To Spain the 
Protector at once replied by the demand that Philip IV. 
should help him to recover Calais, and, meanwhile, cede 
Dunkirk temporarily to England. The Spanish Government 
refused to consider this, or to grant Cromwell's further demand 
for freedom of religion for Englishmen in the Spanish dominions. 
War therefore broke out, and a fleet under Penn and Venables 
was sent to the West Indies. Penn failed to capture San 
Domingo, but the island of Jamaica was seized. Another fleet 
under Blake entered the Mediterranean, and destroyed the 
forts of the Dey of Tunis, who held some Englishmen as slaves. 



The Commonwealth. 301 

In 1657 Blake won a great victory over the Spanish fleet at 
Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, but died on the voyage home. 

In his dealings with France Cromwell was equally success- 
ful, and the policy of alliance between the two countries was 
backed by the astute management of the English wishes by 
Cardinal Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu. In 1655, to 
satisfy Cromwell, Mazarin insisted that the Duke of Savoy 
should stop the persecution of his Protestant subjects; and 
in 1657 an offensive and defensive alliance was signed 
between England and France against Spain. Six thousand 
English troops were landed in Spanish Flanders, and Mardyke 
was captured. In 1658 the army of the allies defeated the 
Spaniards at the battle of the Dunes, and Dunkirk surrendered. 
The town was handed over to the English. 

The surrender of Dunkirk brought Cromwell's foreign policy 
to a triumphant conclusion. In marked contrast to this success 
abroad, his home government had been a failure. Strong as he 
was, the task he had set himself to achieve was an impossible 
one. He had tried to rule as a constitutional statesman, but 
his power won by the sword could only be maintained by 
force. Fortunately for his reputation, death released him 
from a situation which could only have increased in difficulty 
had his life been prolonged. He died on September 3, 1658, 
the anniversary of his great victories of Dunbar and Worcester. 

12. The Anarchy (1 658-1 660). —Richard Cromwell 
succeeded his father without opposition, and the support of a 
considerable party made the establishment of a Cromwell 
dynasty seem possible. But in 1659 a Parliament was sum- 
moned and the old controversies revived. Richard had to 
choose between accepting the support of Parliament or that of 
the army, and after dissolving Parliament to please the army, 
he abdicated the position of Protector, for which he knew him- 
self to be without qualifications. The army then restored the 
Rump, but soon quarrelled with it and expelled the members 
from the House. The country now lapsed into anarchy ; the 
army was torn by dissensions ; the people began to refuse to 
pay taxes to uphold a military rule. In despair the officers of 



3 02 



The Commonwealth. 



the army again restored the Rump on December 26, 1659. 
Meanwhile Monk, who was ruling Scotland, had determined to 
intervene. On January 1, 1660, he crossed the Tweed and 
marched on London. Lambert tried to stop him, but the 
soldiers refused to fight the invaders. On reaching London 
Monk declared for a free Parliament, and forced the Rump to 
decree its own dissolution. Writs were then issued for a Con- 
vention Parliament. 

13. The Restoration (1660).— On April 4, Charles issued 
the Declaration of Breda. This contained four points : a 
general pardon for all except those who should be excluded 
by Parliament ; the settlement by Parliament of the question 
of the lands confiscated from the royalists * the payment of 
arrears due to the army ; and toleration in religion for all who 
did not disturb the public peace. When the Convention 
Parliament met the Lords returned to Westminster, and the 
two Houses voted, that " according to the ancient and funda- 
mental laws of this kingdom the Government is, and ought to 
be, by King, Lords, and Commons." On May 29, Charles II. 
entered London amidst transports of popular enthusiasm. 



CHIEF EVENTS 

Cromwell's campaign in Ireland 

Battle of Dunbar 

Battle of Worcester .... 
Expulsion of the Rump . . . 
The Instrument of Government 
The Peace with Holland . . 
The Humble Petition and Advice 
The Battle of the Dunes . . 



A.D. 

1650. 
1650. 
1651. 
1653. 
1653. 
1654. 

1657. 
1658. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

CHARLES II. (1660-1685). 

I. The Restoration Settlement (1660-1661). — The restor- 
ation of the monarchy involved the necessary settlement of a 
number of questions, religious as well as political, and to this 
the Convention Parliament, which continued to sit after the 
king's return, addressed itself. Meanwhile the Privy Council 
was re-constituted. Charles had been restored by a coalition 
of royalists and Presbyterians, and therefore had to admit to 
the Council men like Manchester and Ashley Cooper, who had 
opposed Charles I. A Council comprised of such conflicting 
elements was not likely to work harmoniously, and all real 
power was concentrated in the hands of an inner circle or 
Cabinet. Chief amongst the Cabinet circle of councillors was 
the chancellor, Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon. Hyde had 
joined Charles I. after the Grand Remonstrance, and had been 
constantly associated with Charles II. during the Civil War 
and the king's exile on the Continent. His character was 
upright, but he had little political insight and did not realise 
the greatness of the changes which had taken place during his 
long absence. His political ideal was the Elizabethan type of 
monarchy, and in foreign policy, friendship for France and 
hostility to Spain. 

From June to December the Convention Parliament sat to 
discuss the four points specified in the Declaration of Breda. 
An " Act of Indemnity and Oblivion " was passed, pardoning 
all offences committed during the war. From this pardon 
the judges of Charles I. were excepted, and thirteen were 
executed, The bodies of Cromwell, Ireton, and Bradshaw 3 

303 



-04 Charles II. 

were dug up and hanged on the gallows. The question of 
the confiscated estates of the Crown, Church, and Cavaliers, 
was settled by their restoration to their rightful owners ; but 
a clause in the Act of Indemnity stopped all claims for the 
arrears of rent. The army was paid off, but 5000 soldiers 
were retained as a guard. The king's revenue was fixed at 
^1,2 00,000, and instead of the feudal revenue which was 
abolished, an excise tax on beer was raised. The religious 
difficulty proved impossible to solve to the satisfaction of all 
parties. Charles was willing to make concessions to the 
Presbyterians in the shape of a modified form of episcopacy. 
But he also wished for toleration wide enough to include 
Catholics, and the Convention Parliament rejected all com- 
promise between the Episcopalians and Presbyterians from fear 
of committing itself to a scheme of toleration for Catholics. 
The religious difficulty was left unsolved at the dissolution of 
Parliament. 

2. The Clarendon Code. — The new Parliament, which 
met in 1661, was ultra-loyalist. It repealed the Triennial Act 
of 1 64 1, and the Clerical Disabilities Act of 1642 ; it denounced 
all claims on the part of Parliament to control the militia, and 
declared that Parliament could not lawfully levy war against 
the king. It was only prevented by Charles from calling in 
question the Act of Indemnity. A severe blow was at once 
struck at the Presbyterians by the Corporation Act (1661), 
which ordered all office-holders in corporate towns to renounce 
the Covenant and to receive the sacrament, according to the 
forms of the Church of England, a year before election. Since 
the dissolution of the Convention, a conference between the 
bishops and Presbyterians had been held at the Savoy Palace, 
but had only resulted in bitter controversies. Some alterations 
were made in the Prayer-book in a direction opposed to 
Presbyterianism, and the fourth Act of Uniformity was there- 
fore passed in 1662. This ordered that every schoolmaster 
and clergyman should declare his assent to everything con- 
tained in the Prayer-book. Any minister who had not been 
episcopally ordained, was to obtain ordination within three 



Charles II, 



3°S 



months. Two thousand ministers, who had obtained benefices 
during the Puritan ascendency, were ejected from their livings. 
The king felt that the promises which he had made at Breda 
were being set aside, and he therefore issued a royal declara- 
tion in favour of toleration, and asked Parliament to enable 
him to dispense with the penalties of the Act of Uniformity ; 
but this only provoked Parliament to denounce toleration, and 
the king had to consent to the banishment of all Catholic 
priests. In 1664 the Conventicle Act was passed, forbidding 
nonconformist religious meetings of more than five persons 
beyond the family. The third offence was to be punished by 
transportation. During the Great Plague which visited London 
in 1665, many of the clergy deserted their posts, and their 
places were filled by the dissenting clergy. This noble con- 
duct only roused greater hostility, and Parliament passed the 
Five Mile Act, forbidding the clergy ejected for refusing the Act 
of Uniformity, to come within five miles of a corporate town. 

3. The Dutch War (1665-1667). — In 1662 Charles had 
married the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, and 
had acquired as her dowry Tangiers and the island of Bombay. 
The marriage had been part of Clarendon's policy of friendship 
for France, for Portugal was a French ally, and Clarendon 
further propitiated Louis XIV. by selling to him Dunkirk for 
^200,000, a step which caused much indignation in England. 
The French alliance was, in fact, a proof of Clarendon's 
inability to shake off the ideas of his youth. Like Cromwell, he 
clung to the worn-out policy of opposition to Spain, a country 
which had fallen into decay, and had ceased to be a danger to 
the liberties of Europe. On the other hand, France, under the 
able and ambitious Louis XIV., had taken the place which 
the House of Hapsburg had filled in the sixteenth century, 
and by weakening Spain, Cromwell, and after him Clarendon, 
played into the hands of the Bourbons. To Charles the 
French alliance was pleasing, because he was willing enough 
to be the pensioner of Louis XIV., and to obtain from France 
the means to carry on his extravagant and profligate mode of 
life. A violent reaction had set in against the austerities of the 

x 



306 Charles II. 

Puritan rule, and in the unbounded licence, which became the 
fashion, the Court was pre-eminent. 

In 1664 the long rivalry between England and Holland 
led to the outbreak of war. The English captured the Dutch 
settlements in Africa, and seized New Amsterdam, in America, 
which was re-named New York. In 1665 the king's brother 
James, Duke of York, commanded the fleet which won a great 
victory over the Dutch near Lowestoft. The Dutch applied to 
their old ally, France, for help, and Louis, in accordance with 
his treaty obligations, declared war against England (1666). 
But the declaration was only a blind, for his hope was that the 
rival navies of England and Holland would destroy each other, 
and the French fleet therefore remained practically inactive. 
A fleet under Monk, who had been created Duke of Albemarle, 
was defeated by the Dutch off the North Foreland, but in a 
battle at the mouth of the Thames, the English were victorious. 
In 1666 the Great Fire destroyed a large part of London, and 
this crippled England's resources. In 1667 negotiations were 
opened at Breda, but the Dutch, in order to put pressure on 
England, took advantage of the fact that the English fleet had 
been put on a peace footing to launch a new expedition. The 
Dutch fleet entered the Thames, sailed up the Medway, burnt 
several English men-of-war, and blockaded the Thames for 
some days. This manoeuvre hastened the peace negotiations 
and the Treaty of Breda was signed. 

4. The Fall of Clarendon (1667). — It was fortunate for 
Charles that in Clarendon he had a minister whom he could 
safely sacrifice to the popular indignation at the humiliations 
England had suffered. Clarendon, in fact, had made for him- 
self enemies on all sides. He had wearied the king by his 
warnings against the riotous and immoral character of the 
Court, and he had incurred the hatred of the king's mistress, 
Lady Castlemaine. The Cavaliers had not forgiven him for 
resisting their claims to the arrears of income from their con- 
fiscated estates, and the Presbyterians were justly incensed by 
the cruel repressive policy directed against them. He was 
attacked by Parliament, and Charles dismissed him from the 



Charles II. 307 

chancellorship. To avoid the penalty of an impeachment, 
Clarendon, acting on a hint from Charles, fled to France, and 
died in exile. He spent the last years of his life in com- 
pleting his great literary masterpiece, " The History of the Great 
Rebellion." 

5. The Cabal (1667-1673). — The new ministry was ulti- 
mately composed of five members, Clifford, Arlington, Buck- 
ingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale. The first measure of the 
new Cabinet, or Cabal, was the popular Triple Alliance. On 
the death of Philip IV. of Spain (1665), Louis XIV. had 
demanded a share of the Spanish Netherlands in right of his 
wife, Maria Theresa, Philip's elder daughter. The Spanish 
regency, ruling on behalf of Charles II. of Spain, refused the 
French demand, and Louis began the war, known as the " War 
of Devolution," by overrunning the Spanish Netherlands with 
his armies. To save Holland from becoming the immediate 
neighbour, and therefore the dependent of France, the Triple 
Alliance was formed by England, Holland, and Sweden, to 
impose terms on the combatants. The result was the Peace 
of Aix la Chapelle (1668), by which Louis abandoned his 
conquests in return for the cession of many important frontier 
towns. Louis bitterly resented the interference of the Dutch, 
and henceforward his policy was directed towards punishing 
Holland. 

In England the Triple Alliance was popular, but Charles 
had no sympathy with a policy which would entail the cutting 
off of French subsidies, and as a consequence, his own sub- 
jection to Parliament. He was, moreover, a Catholic at heart, 
and the conversion of the Duke of York in 1669 increased his 
leanings towards Catholicism. He therefore negotiated the 
Secret Treaty of Dover (1670), by which he agreed to help 
Louis against Holland, and to support the French king's claims 
to the Spanish throne, if Charles II. of Spain died without a 
son. He also agreed to declare himself a Catholic when it 
was safe to do so, and Louis was to lend him 6000 troops to 
put down opposition. In return for English help against 
Holland and Spain, Charles was to receive the islands of 



308 Charles II. 

Walcheren and Cadsand and a share of Spanish South America. 
The treaty was only known to Clifford, who was a Catholic, 
and to Arlington; but Buckingham, in 1671, was sent to Paris 
and negotiated a public treaty against the Dutch. 

In pursuance of his agreement with France, Charles pro- 
rogued Parliament and obtained money by suspending the 
payments from the Exchequer of the sums deposited with the 
Government by the bankers as a loan. By this fraudulent 
measure, known as the " stop of the exchequer," he obtained 
;£i, 300,000, at the expense of the ruin of the bankers and 
their customers. A few months before this he had issued a 
Declaration of Indulgence, suspending all penal laws on the 
subject of religion. Early in 1672 a naval war with Holland 
began, while Louis, crossing the Rhine, outflanked the Dutch 
frontier fortresses, and invaded Holland. The advance of the 
French armies was only stopped by the desperate device of 
cutting the dykes and flooding the country outside the towns. 
De Witt, who directed the foreign policy of Holland, was 
assassinated at the Hague, and William of Orange was made 
Stadtholder. In spite of the triumphant beginning of the 
campaign, Louis was forced back on a series of frontier sieges. 

6. The Fall of the Cabal (1673).— When Parliament 
reassembled, after a prorogation of nearly two years, it voted a 
large sum of money, but on condition that the Declaration of 
Indulgence was withdrawn. Charles had to yield, and Parlia- 
ment followed up its victory by passing the Test Act. This 
ordered that every office-holder must receive the sacrament, 
according to the Church of England, and declare his disbelief 
in the doctrine of Transubstantiation. The Duke of York at 
once resigned the office of lord high admiral, and Clifford 
retired from the treasury. The Cabal was broken up, and 
Shaftesbury, who opposed the Catholic sympathies of the king, 
was dismissed. Sir Thomas Osborne was made treasurer and 
Earl of Danby, and on the dismissal of Buckingham, became 
chief adviser of the king. A series of disasters at sea, caused 
partly by the abstention of the French fleet from rendering 
active help, caused England to withdraw from the war. In 



Charles II 



3°9 



1674 peace was signed, the Dutch ceding to England the 
island of St. Helena. 

7. Danby's Policy. — Danby's home policy aimed at 
strengthening the monarchy by cementing an alliance with 
the Church and the Cavalier, or Country Party, in opposition 
to the party which favoured toleration and was led by Shaftes- 
bury. In foreign affairs he supported the Dutch alliance and 
hostility to France. His rule was arbitrary, for he tried to 
force an oath of non-resistance on all members of Parliament, 
and he Hosed the London coffee-houses on the ground that 
they were centres of free discussion. He imprisoned Shaftes- 
bury and three other peers for declaring a lengthy prorogation 
of Parliament to be illegal. His foreign policy was severely 
hampered by the interference of the king and by the action of 
Louis XIV. Having withdrawn England from the war with 
Holland, he was now anxious to range her on the side of 
Holland against France, in the coalition formed by Austria 
and Spain to check the aggressions of Louis XIV. Charles, 
however, could not afford to quarrel with France, and thus 
lose the pension on which he relied, and Louis was able to 
paralyse Danby's policy by bribing the king to prorogue 
Parliament or the Opposition in Parliament to resist the royal 
wish to raise an army. On the Continent France held her own 
against the coalition, and the prospect of the conquest of the 
Spanish Netherlands became so threatening that Parliament, in 
1677, asked Charles to join the coalition. William of Orange 
came to England and was married to Mary, daughter of James, 
Duke of York. Even Charles was afraid that English com- 
merce would suffer if France controlled the Netherlands, and 
in 1678 he declared in favour of a war with France and began 
to gather an army. The Opposition, whose fears were worked 
on by the warnings and gifts of the French ambassador, de- 
manded its dismissal, and Charles at once returned to his policy 
of subservience to France. Danby was ordered to address to 
Louis a demand for money for which Charles would prorogue 
Parliament and desert Holland. Louis was thus able to make 
the favourable Peace of Nymwegen (1678). At the instigation 



3'io Charles II. 

of Louis, Danby's letter was published, and he was impeached 
by the Commons. Charles dissolved Parliament in 1679, after 
it had been in existence for nearly eighteen years. 

8. The Popish Plot. — The fall of Danby coincided with 
the excitement caused by the pretended revelations by Titus 
Oates of the existence of a Jesuit plot to murder Charles and 
place James on the throne. Oates, a foul-minded impostor, 
had been at one time a clergyman of the Church of England, 
but to serve his nefarious ends, had feigned conversion to 
the Catholic Church, and had been received into the Jesuit 
College at St. Omer. He was expelled for misconduct, but he 
had gained sufficient knowledge of Catholic affairs to be able 
to give some sort of plausibility to the lies which he fabricated. 
His story rapidly grew as more details were required of him 
and it at last took shape in a supposed scheme for the seizure 
of the government of England by the Jesuits and a general 
massacre of Protestants. The papers of various Catholics were 
seized, and fortunately for Oates in those of Coleman, the secre- 
tary of the Duchess of York, expressions were found which 
seemed to imply some great enterprise for the conversion of 
England. This, and the fact that the magistrate, Sir Edmunds- 
bury Godfrey, before whom Oates had made his depositions, 
was found dead on Primrose Hill, gave colour to the wildest 
surmises. Five Catholic peers were sent to the Tower, and 
hundreds of Catholics were imprisoned. The House of Com- 
mons voted " that there hath been, and is, a damnable and 
hellish plot, carried on by Papist recusants, for assassinating 
and murdering the king, for subverting the Government, and 
rooting out the Protestant religion." Parliament passed an 
Act excluding Catholic peers from the House of Lords. Other 
informers, such as Bedloe and Dangerfield, came forward to 
share with Oates the rewards of the iniquitous trade of swearing 
away the lives of innocent men. A number of Jesuits and 
secular priests were tried and executed, their trials being con- 
ducted so that conviction was inevitable. In 1680 the vener- 
able Lord Stafford was brought to the scaffold on the false 
charge of plotting the king's murder. 



Charles II. 311 

9. The Exclusion Bill (1679).— On the fall of Danby 
the king, by the advice of Sir William Temple, determined to 
abandon the Cabal system. A new Privy Council was appointed, 
consisting of thirty members drawn from both parties and both 
Houses of Parliament, its members having an aggregate income 
of ^300,000. The idea was to shield the king from the attacks 
of Parliament by means of a body of councillors who were in 
close contact with both Houses. Shaftesbury, Cavendish, and 
Russell, were admitted to the Council. The experiment failed, 
and an inner circle, which included Sunderland, Halifax, and 
Temple himself, absorbed all power. Shaftesbury and his 
allies therefore again went into opposition, and when Charles' 
second Parliament met in 1679, a Bill to exclude James from 
the throne was brought in. Charles dissolved Parliament. 
Before it separated he gave the royal assent to the great Habeas 
Corpus Act, which secured to persons accused of crimes the 
right to a writ of Habeas Corpus and a speedy trial. 

10. Scottish Affairs. — The restoration had broken the 
legislative union with Scotland which Cromwell had planned, 
and the Scottish Parliament had regained its position of inde- 
pendence. At the same time episcopacy was revived, and the 
clergy who refused to accept episcopal ordination were ejected 
from their livings. The abjuration of the Covenant was imposed 
on all officials. The government was entrusted to Lauderdale, 
who acted in conjunction with Archbishop Sharp. To over- 
awe the western Lowland, which were strongly Presbyterian, 
Lauderdale quartered Highlanders on the disaffected districts. 
In 1679 Archbishop Sharpe was brutally murdered by some 
extreme Covenanters, and Graham of Claverhouse, later on 
Viscount Dundee, who was sent against the rebels in the west, 
was defeated at Drumclog. The Duke of Monmouth, the 
king's illegitimate son, was sent to put down the insurrection 
and crushed the rebels at Bothwell Bridge. Monmouth was 
recalled and James, Duke of York, went to Scotland as High 
Commissioner, and under his direction a persecution of pitiless 
vigour was directed against the Covenanters. 

11. The Fall of Shaftesbury (1681).— The party led by 



2 12 Charles II. 

Shaftesbury had taken every advantage of the perjuries of Oates 
and his imitators. Shaftesbury himself was too clearheaded a 
statesman to place credence in the tissue of lies fabricated by 
the impostors, but he hoped to find in the popular panic a 
means to oust James from the inheritance of the Crown. In 
1679 the elections for the third Parliament had been held, but 
it was not allowed to meet. Shaftesbury therefore organised 
petitions for its meeting, whereupon the royal party presented 
counter-petitions expressing abhorrence at this interference 
with the king's prerogative. Hence the political nicknames 
Petitioners and Abhorrers, terms which soon gave way to 
Whigs and Tories. (Whig was the name given to the extreme 
Covenanters in Scotland, while Tory was the appellation of the 
Irish banditti.) When Parliament met in 1680 the Exclusion 
Bill was brought in and Shaftesbury and his party openly 
advocated the claims of the Duke of Monmouth, on the pretence 
that the king had been secretly married to Monmouth's mother, 
Lucy Walters. The Exclusion Bill was rejected by the Lords 
and Parliament was dissolved. The fourth and last Parliament 
of the reign met at Oxford 1681. Charles offered concessions 
which would have made James only nominally king ; James was 
to be banished, and the government carried on in his name by 
William of Orange. The Commons refused all concessions, 
and Parliament was dissolved, after a session lasting one week. 
The king now appealed to the nation against the factious 
conduct of Parliament, and was met by a great outburst of 
loyalty, which enabled him to take vengeance on his enemies. 
The Whigs had overshot the mark by their Exclusion Bill, for 
it would have excluded not only James but also his Protestant 
children, Mary and Anne. Besides this, a reaction had begun 
against the authors of the Popish Plot scare. Shaftesbury fled 
abroad, and Monmouth was banished. A general conspiracy 
was formed by Russell and the Whigs for an insurrection, 
while some extreme members of the party planned the Rye 
House Plot for the assassination of the king and James on 
their way south from Newmarket. Russell and Algernon 
Sidney the republican, were arrested and executed, after a trial 



Charles II. 313 

which was conducted with gross injustice. For the rest of the 
reign the Tories were in power under Rochester and the Duke 
of York. Writs of " quo warranto " were issued to the towns, 
and, on the ground that the corporations had exceeded these 
rights, their charters were forfeited. The new charters altered 
the corporations so as to place the town electorate in the hands 
of the Tories. Charles, however, did not again summon 
Parliament, and for the four last years of the reign relied on 
the subsidies of Louis XIV., who was anxious to prevent the 
summons of Parliament through fear of its opposition to his 
schemes of aggression in Alsace and Lorraine. 

The effect of the reaction against the authors of the Popish 
Plot scare and of the Exclusion Bill struggle was to make 
Charles practically absolute. He had divined that the nation 
had no wish to see the troubles of the civil war renewed, and 
he had used with consummate ability his constitutional right of 
summoning and dismissing Parliament so as to give the Whig 
Opposition opportunity to destroy itself by alienating all 
moderate men through the violence of its conduct. With all 
his levity and indolence, and his cynical disbelief in the dis- 
interestedness of men's motives, Charles knew how to appeal 
to the affections of his subjects. His position at his accession 
had been one of extraordinary difficulty, but he had con- 
trived to steer clear of all dangers, and at his death he 
left the monarchy stronger than it had been since the Tudor 
period. His death came unexpectedly, for since 1679, when 
he had been dangerously ill, he had regained much of his health 
by avoiding the excesses in which he had previously indulged. 
But on February 2, 1685, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy 
and died four days later. On his death-bed he was reconciled 
to the Catholic Church, and received the last sacraments. 



3H 



Charles II. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Aot of Indemnity 1660. 

Corporation Act 1661. 

War with Holland 1665-1667. 

Fall of Clarendon 1667. 

Triple Alliance 1668. 

Treaty of Dover 1670. 

Test Act 1673. 

Habeas Corpus Act 1679. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

JAMES II. (1685-1688). 

I. Accession of James II. — The character of James II. was 
markedly different from that of his predecessor. Charles II. 
had united the graceful manners of his father, Charles I., with 
the shrewdness and caustic wit of his grandfather, James I. 
James II. had many good qualities; he had shown himself a 
sound, far-seeing administrator at the Admiralty, and he had 
given proofs of courage in war. Although not without most 
serious moral failings, he profoundly disliked the parade of 
indecorum, which had disgraced the Court .of Charles II. and 
had lowered the moral standard of society. Where he gave 
his confidence he did so unreservedly, and his loyalty to those 
who served him was unshakeable. But in every quality of 
statesmanship he was deficient. Cold and unimaginative, he 
had no insight into character, and he was totally unable to fore- 
cast the trend of events. It was said truly of him that whereas 
Charles II. could see things if he would, James would see 
things if he could. He had no knowledge of the arts of 
popularity, or of the management of men, and his foolish 
attempts to force the Catholic faith on a hostile nation re- 
coiled disastrously on the interests of religion and on the 
fortunes of his dynasty. 

The new reign opened auspiciously ; the Tory reaction was 
still unabated, and the doctrine of non-resistance and of the 
Divine Right of Kings was proclaimed from the pulpits of the 
Established Church. James promised to respect the Protestant 
Church, while maintaining his own right to practise the religion 
he had embraced. "I know," James declared to the Privy 
Council, " that the laws of England are sufficient to make the 

3i5 



3 1 6 James II. 

king as great a monarch as I can wish ; and as I shall never 
depart from the just rights and prerogatives of the Crown, so 
I shall never invade any man's property." Parliament was 
summoned, and an overwhelming Tory majority was returned. 
It voted the king a revenue on a larger scale than that of 
Charles II., and although reference was made to the enforce- 
ment of the penal laws against Catholics, the subject was 
dropped when the king expressed his displeasure. Titus Oates 
and Dangerfield were severely punished; while several 
thousands of Catholics, and a number of Quakers, were 
released from prison. 

2. The Rebellions of 1685. — Throughout the last years 
of Charles II. a cruel persecution had been carried on against 
the Scottish Covenanters, and the first Scottish Parliament of 
James II. passed an act ordering that any one who attended a 
conventicle should be punished by death. The irritation caused 
by the cruelties inflicted on the Covenanters in the west of 
Scotland by Graham of Claverhouse and the royal troops, 
roused the hopes of the small group of Whig leaders who had 
taken refuge in Holland. Monmouth and Argyle determined 
to lead two expeditions, the former to the west of England, the 
latter to the west of Scotland. Argyle's expedition was badly 
mismanaged ; the clan of the Campbells did not rise, and the 
Covenanters in the western Lowlands were too feeble to afford 
much support to the rebels. Argyle was easily captured, and 
was executed. 

A month after Argyle's landing Monmouth's expedition 
disembarked at Lyme Regis, in Dorsetshire. Monmouth issued 
a violent proclamation, denouncing James as a usurper, 
murderer, and tyrant, and ascribing to him the fire of London, 
the death of Charles II., and other enormities. The aims of 
the rebels were declared to be the establishment of the 
Protestant religion beyond all possibility of its being sup- 
planted, the repeal of laws against Protestant dissenters, annual 
Parliaments, upright judges, and the restoration of town 
charters. Although Monmouth was not joined by any persons 
of position he mustered three thousand adherents from the 



James II. 317 

lower classes, and at the head of these set out for Taunton, 
where he was warmly welcomed. Here he proclaimed himself 
king, with the title of James II., and offered a reward for the 
capture of "the usurper James, Duke of York." He then 
pushed eastwards as far as Philip's Norton, but, finding him- 
self unsupported, he retreated to Bridgwater. Meanwhile 
Parliament had passed an act of attainder against him, and 
James himself advanced towards the west with a small army. 
Monmouth tried to surprise the royal forces under Lord 
Feversham by a night attack on their camp at Sedgmoor. 
The attack failed, and the royal troops, led by John Churchill, 
the future Duke of Marlborough, boldly attacked the insurgents. 
Monmouth fled, leaving his brave followers to continue the 
hopeless struggle. He was captured and brought to London, 
where, after an interview with the king, in which he in vain 
pleaded for his life, he was executed. A terrible vengeance was 
wreaked on the unhappy rebels. Colonel Kirke hanged a 
hundred who had been captured, and the infamous Judge 
Jeffreys was sent with four other judges to try the rest. In 
the judicial circuit, which is known as the " Bloody Assizes," 
several hundred rebels were sentenced to death, and a 
large proportion of these were hanged. Over 800 were 
transported to the West Indies. Jeffreys, who throughout con- 
ducted the proceedings with savage brutality, was rewarded 
with the office of Lord Chancellor. 

3. Climax of James's Power. — For the second time in 
his career the foolish violence of his enemies had only served 
to strengthen James's political position. He had now obtained 
from Parliament an income which made him independent of 
Louis XIV., and he hoped to win its assent to the creation of a 
standing army, the repeal of the Test Act, and a modification 
of the Habeas Corpus Act, which would give the Government 
the right of discretionary imprisonment. Lord Halifax, the 
president of the Council, was opposed to arbitrary measures, 
and was therefore removed from office, and James placed 
increasing confidence in his crafty and unreliable minister, the 
Earl of Sunderland. 



3 1 8 James II. 



When Parliament reassembled fears were aroused by the 
knowledge that the army was still kept up, although the Mon- 
mouth rebellion had collapsed, and that a number of Catholic 
officers had been appointed. Moreover, popular apprehension 
on the subject of religion had been greatly increased by the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., which drove 
thousands of French Huguenots to take refuge in England. It 
was feared that James had made a secret compact with Louis 
to crush Protestantism, and this suspicion showed itself 
in the demand made by the Commons that the Test Act 
should be enforced. James had asked for ;£i, 2 00,000 for 
a standing army, but the Commons only granted ^700,000. 
As the Lords also opposed the appointment of Catholic 
officers, James prorogued Parliament, and it did not meet 
again. 

4. The Dispensing Power (1686). — James now returned 
to the well-known Stuart device of obtaining through the 
judges that which Parliament refused. Having removed from 
office those judges who were likely to adopt an independent 
attitude, James promoted a collusive suit against Sir Edward 
Hales, a Catholic convert, who was sued for the penalty of 
^■500, to which he was liable for holding an office in the army 
without having complied with the Test Act. Hales pleaded a 
royal dispensation, and the judges, acting in accordance with 
legal precedent, declared in favour of the dispensing power of 
the Crown. 

James at once took advantage of this decision to give 
offices of various kinds to Catholics. A Catholic Cabal was 
formed, which included Sunderland, Father Petre the Jesuit, 
and Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel. Four Catholics were 
admitted to the Privy Council. Clergymen of the Church of 
England who had become Catholics were authorised to retain 
their benefices, and a convert, Massey, was made Dean of 
Christ Church, Oxford. The conversion of a number of 
noblemen and influential persons naturally roused widespread 
alarm amongst the Protestants. Meanwhile James, breaking 
the solemn promise made at his accession to respect the 



James II. 319 

Established Church, had determined to use all the powers of 
the Crown to weaken it. Clergymen who defended the doctrines 
of their Church were suspended, and to ensure the obedience 
of the Protestant clergy James set up the Ecclesiastical Com- 
mission Court to enforce his authority as supreme governor of 
the Church. Compton, Bishop of London, for refusing to 
punish Sharp, Dean of Norwich, for an anti-papal sermon was 
suspended. In Scotland a similar policy was pursued, and the 
dispensing power was employed to gain for Scottish Catholics 
the freedom from penalties which the Scottish Parliament 
refused to grant. In Ireland, under the rule of the Earl of 
Tyrconnel, the Protestant ascendency was threatened by the 
favours showered on the Catholics. 

5. The Declaration of Indulgence (1687). — The secret 
Cabal, of which Sunderland and Father Petre were the leaders, 
was now supreme. Lord Rochester, the king's brother-in-law, 
was dismissed from the treasurership for refusing to condone 
the attacks on the Church of England. In thehope of winning 
over the Dissenters, James, in April, 1687, issued his first 
Declaration of Indulgence, suspending all penal laws on the 
subject of religion. A papal Nuncio was publicly received at 
Windsor, and public irritation was further increased by the 
proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission against the 
Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford. James had insisted 
on their electing to the vacant presidentship Parker, Bishop of 
Oxford, who was at heart a Catholic, and on their refusal to 
do so they were ejected from the college, and Parker was 
forcibly installed. The vice-chancellor of the University of 
Cambridge was deprived of his office for refusing to confer a 
degree on Francis, a Benedictine monk. In the hope of obtain- 
ing a new Parliament which would sanction the Declaration of 
Indulgence, the existing Parliament, which had been prorogued 
since November, 1685, was dissolved, and arrangements were 
made to obtain a subservient Parliament. But James had 
now thoroughly aroused the fears of the Tories, and as he saw 
that even a packed Parliament could not be trusted, he aban- 
doned the idea of summoning one. 



^20 James II. 

6. James II. and Louis XIV. — James had not proceeded 
on his ruinous course without warnings from his own side. 
Amongst English Catholics a large party was opposed to the 
policy of Father Petre and Tyrconnel, and was in favour 
of moderate counsels. This party had the support of the 
Pope, Innocent XI., who, for reasons ecclesiastical as well as 
political, was strongly opposed to Louis XIV., and earnestly 
deprecated an Anglo-French alliance with its consequence, the 
enforced restoration of Catholicism in England. Innocent 
had condemned the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he 
had urged James not to break with Parliament, and he had 
refused the latter' s request that Father Petre should be made a 
cardinal. The Pope was also a secret supporter of the great 
league which was being formed by the emperor, Spain, and 
Holland, and many of the German princes, against the cease- 
less aggressions of Louis XIV. James had at first shown an 
intention to pose as the arbiter of Europe, but as his difficulties 
at home increased, he leaned more and more towards the 
policy of dependence on France. 

7. The Second Declaration of Indulgence (1688). — 
On April 22, a second Declaration was issued, and was 
ordered to be read publicly in the churches. Churchmen were 
now brought definitely face to face with the dilemma whether 
to uphold still the doctrine of non-resistance, which they had 
preached so long, or to abandon it now that the authority of 
the Crown was wielded against them, and not against Dis- 
senters and Recusants. Fortunately for them the great bulk of 
the Dissenters refused to accept the Declaration because it 
involved a breach of the Constitution, and the clergy therefore 
determined on resistance. A petition, drawn up by Sancroft, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and signed by six bishops, was 
presented to the king asking to be released from the obliga- 
tion to break the law by reading an illegal Declaration. James, 
acting on the advice of Jeffreys, sent the seven bishops to the 
Tower on a charge of sedition. Their conduct roused the 
wildest enthusiasm, and on being tried by a jury they were 
acquitted. While their fate was still undecided, and public 



James II. 321 

opinion was worked up to the highest pitch of excitement and 
suspicion, the queen, Mary of Modena, gave birth to a son. 
The malice of James' enemies insisted that no child had been 
born, and that the young prince was an infant secretly smuggled 
into the palace in order to defraud Mary, Princess of Orange, 
of her rights of succession. The falsehood, in the excited state 
of the national mind, was widely believed. 

8. The Invasion of William of Orange (1688).— The 
birth of a son, who would be brought up as a Catholic, made the 
revolution inevitable. James had alienated the vast majority 
of the nation by his impolitic measures, and both Tories and 
Whigs turned to William of Orange as the saviour of the Con- 
stitution and of Protestantism. James could not even rely on 
the large army which he had stationed at Hounslow to over- 
awe the capital. On the day on which the verdict in favour of 
the seven bishops was delivered, a letter signed by seven lead- 
ing men, representing the W T hig and Tory parties, was sent to 
William, inviting him to bring an army to rescue the religion 
and liberties of England. 

For the moment it seemed doubtful whether "William 
would be able to accept the invitation addressed to him. 
Throughout his career he had been too much hampered by 
popular control in Holland to care much for the fate of 
Parliamentary rights in England ; but his life had been spent 
in one long struggle to resist the encroachments of Louis 
XIV., and to rescue England from dependence on France 
was a most important move in the perilous game he was 
playing against France. In 1686 he had drawn together the 
threads of a great combination of European States, known 
as the League of Augsburg, to oppose the pretensions of 
France. It had been joined by the emperor, Spain, Sweden, 
Brandenburg, and Holland. Innocent XL supported the 
coalition, and was in close relations with William. But it was 
clear that the Dutch would never allow the expedition to 
England to sail, so long as the Netherlands were threatened by 
the army which Louis had massed on the Belgian frontier. 
The infatuation of James released William from his difficulties. 

Y 



322 James II. 

In spite of the warnings of Louis against William's designs, 
James persisted in the belief that Mary and her husband would 
not conspire to dethrone him. As a last resort Louis warned 
the Dutch States General that he would regard an attack on 
England as a declaration of war against himself. James, who 
was offended by the attitude of protection adopted by Louis, 
warmly repudiated the allegation that there was a secret treaty 
between himself and the French king, and the latter therefore 
left him to his fate. The French troops in Flanders were 
marched south to attack the Empire, and William was thus 
free to start. On November 5, 1688, William landed at 
Brixham, in Torbay, and on reaching Exeter was joined by 
some adherents from the west. 

o. The Flight of James II. — Before the landing of 
William, James, realising his danger, had striven to recall the 
results of his disastrous policy. The Ecclesiastical Commission 
was abolished, the bishops who had been prosecuted were 
restored to favour, and the charters taken from the cities and 
boroughs were restored. These concessions only evoked 
protestations of loyalty, which were illusory. The army 
was raised to 40,000 and placed under Lord Feversham, 
and the fleet was commanded by Lord Dartmouth. Fever- 
sham pushed westwards as far as Salisbury, while William 
advanced to Wincanton, where a skirmish took place, in which 
the royal troops were worsted. Hitherto William had not met 
with much support, but the spirit of disaffection rapidly spread. 
John Churchill organised the desertion of James by the troops, 
and plotted to hand over James himself as a prisoner. The 
king, uncertain as to whom he could trust, fled to London. 
Here he learnt that at Churchill's instigation the Princess 
Anne had abandoned him. After negotiating an armistice 
with William, during which Parliament was to meet, and 
having sent the queen and her little son to France, James 
attempted to escape. He was stopped at Sheerness and 
brought to London ; but William was only too glad to facili- 
tate his flight, and on December 23, 1688, he left England 
and sailed for France. Here he was received with generous 



James II. 323 

kindness by Louis, who assigned to him a royal palace and a 
pension of ,£45,000 a year. 

10. The Convention Parliament (1689).— On reaching 
London William had issued writs for a Convention Parliament, 
and it met on January 22, 1689. William, before the invasion, 
had solemnly pledged his word to his Catholic allies on the 
Continent that he had no intention of advancing any claims to 
the English Crown, but he was now strong enough to abandon 
all pretences. His position was, however, a difficult one, and 
it required all his masterly diplomacy to attain his ends. 
The Whigs had a majority in the Commons, but the Tories 
predominated in the Lords, and the latter refused at first to 
contemplate the deposition of the king, and to drop the 
doctrine of Divine Right, to which the Tories had pledged 
themselves again and again. Some of the Tories, therefore, 
proposed that James should be nominally king, and that 
William should be regent ; while the rest under Danby urged 
that as James by his flight had abdicated, Mary was heir to the 
throne. William, however, refused to be either regent or king 
consort, and ultimately two resolutions were passed (1) That 
James having broken " the original contract between king and 
people, and by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons 
having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn 
himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government and 
that the throne was thereby vacant." (2) " That experience 
had shown it to be inconsistent with the safety and welfare of 
this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a popish prince." 
It was further agreed to offer the Crown to William and Mary, 
jointly and severally, in a constitutional document, the Declara- 
tion of Right, which should set forth the illegalities of James 
II., and lay down certain fundamental rights. This Declara- 
tion was accepted by William and Mary, and on February 13, 
1689, they were proclaimed king and queen. 

The Bill of Rights, which was the formal ratification by 
Parliament, with some modifications, of the Declaration of 
Right, enumerated the unconstitutional acts of James, and 
made the following declarations : — 



^24 James II. 



(i) That it was illegal to suspend or dispense with the 
execution of laws by royal authority, "as it had been assumed 
and exercised of late," or to erect courts of ecclesiastical com- 
missioners, or to levy money, unless granted by Parliament, or 
to keep a standing army in time of peace, without the consent 
of Parliament. 

(2) That Protestant subjects had the right to carry arms ; 
that Parliamentary elections ought to be free, and freedom of 
speech in Parliament should not be questioned ; that for the 
redress of grievances Parliament ought to be held frequently ; 
and that excessive fines and punishments ought not to be 
awarded. 

(3) That William and Mary were to be king and queen ; 
on their death the Crown was to devolve on their children, and 
in default of their issue on Anne and her children ; if these 
failed it was to go to any children of William, should he 
survive Mary and marry a second wife. Any person who was 
a Catholic, or married a Catholic, was declared incapable of 
occupying the throne. 

11. Results of the Revolution. — Thus was accomplished 
what was termed the " Glorious Revolution." Viewed in some 
of its aspects, and more especially the conduct of its promoters, 
it has little claim to that title. It had been achieved by a 
foreign prince and a foreign army, and its success was due as 
much to the perfidy and ingratitude of men of every rank, as to 
the perverse obstinacy and illegal conduct of James II. The 
low standard of political conduct, fostered by the success of 
the Revolution, is seen in the treacherous conduct of leading 
statesmen during the next twenty-five years. In addition to 
this, the Revolution was followed by long years of war, and by 
a vast increase of the public burdens. But, in spite of these 
temporary drawbacks, the Revolution had the supreme advan- 
tage of settling the long struggle between king and Parliament. 
It tore up by the roots the doctrine of the Divine Right of 
Kings, which had divided the nation for nearly a century. It 
established religious toleration for Dissenters, and, although 
none was intended for Catholics, it was inevitable that in the 



James II. 325 

long run Catholic claims should not be successfully resisted. 
It set up the supremacy of a Parliament, which was in reality an 
oligarchy, but this was a necessary stage through which the 
nation had to pass on the way to wider political liberties. The 
doctrine of the Whigs, that the basis of sovereignty was an 
original compact between king and people, was as un-historical 
as the Stuart dogma of Divine Right ; but the Whig doctrine 
had the merit of enforcing the truth that both king and people 
were bound by obligations which could not with safety be 
disregarded. 1 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

AD. 

Monmouth's Rebellion 1685. 

Court of Ecclesiastical Commission established . 1686. 

Second Declaration of Indulgence 1688. 

Convention Parliament meets 1689. 

1 For a discussion of the various aspects of the Revolution, see Lecky, 
History of England in the Eighteenth Century,'' vol. i. pp. 13-23. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

WI T.LI AM AND MAR Y (1689-1694) ; WILLIAM ILL ( 1694-1 702). 

i. The Coalition Ministry (1 689-1 690). — William had 
been called to the throne by a union of Whigs and Tories, and 
the new Ministry was therefore drawn from both parties. The 
Tory Danby, who had done so much to secure the accession 
of William and Mary, was made president of the Council and 
Marquis of Carmarthen, and the two secretaryships of State 
were shared by the Tory Finch, Earl of Nottingham, and the 
Earl of Shrewsbury, who was a Whig. Halifax, who, from the 
careful moderation of his views, had earned for himself the 
name of " Trimmer," became privy seal. The treasury and 
admiralty were put into commission, and shared by Whigs 
and. Tories. William was his own chief minister, and under- 
took the management of foreign affairs. His most intimate 
friends were the two Dutchmen, Bentinck, whom he made 
Earl of Portland, and Arnold van Keppel, who in 1696 
became Earl of Albemarle. To conciliate the Churchills, 
who were all-powerful with Anne, John Churchill was made 
Earl of Marlborough. 

2. Constitutional Changes (1689-1696). — The Con- 
vention, which had now become a regular Parliament, at once 
proceeded to settle the Revenue. It gave the king a revenue 
°f ^i 5 2oo,ooo, of which ^700,000 was granted to him for life, 
and was to be devoted to the expenses of the Crown and to 
the payment of the Civil officials, and hence came to be known 
as the Civil List. The remainder was voted for short periods, 
and the practice was now adopted by which estimates were 
prepared annually for the different departments, and the sums 

326 



William and Mary. 327 

thereupon voted were strictly appropriated to the object of the 
grant. This secured the Commons a strong hold on the 
Ministry and rendered necessary the annual summons of 
Parliament. The question of a standing army was also settled 
on similar lines by the Mutiny Act of 1689, by which the 
army was legalised and placed under the jurisdiction of courts 
martial. The Act was to remain in force for six months, and 
after that it was renewed from year to year, thus providing 
another means of Parliamentary control over the government. 
Without the annual passing of the Mutiny Act by Parliament 
the army legally would cease to exist. 

Another important measure was the Toleration Act of 1689, 
which gave freedom of worship to all Dissenters who believed 
in the^doctrine of the Trinity. William, who as a Calvinist 
had no sympathy with the forms of the English Church, 
favoured a Bill of Comprehension for reconciling Dissenters to 
the established religion, but the clergy opposed all concessions, 
and the scheme fell through. The High Church clergy were, 
in fact, bitterly aggrieved at the enforced surrender of the 
doctrine of Divine Right, and when an oath of allegiance was 
ordered to be taken by all beneficed clergy, Archbishop 
Sancroft, Bishop Ken, and about three hundred clergymen, 
refused to take it, and were ejected from office. They formed 
the Non-Jurors, who claimed to be the true Church of England, 
and the schism was maintained till 1805. 

Later on in the reign other important changes were effected. 
In 1694 the Triennial Act limited the duration of Parliament to 
three years. This prevented the abuse by which a subservient 
Parliament, like that of 1661-1679, was indefinitely prolonged. 
In 1695 the Licensing Act of 1662, which severely restricted 
the press, was allowed to drop, and the era of free discussion 
was made ultimately possible. In 1696 the Treasons Act 
improved the procedure of treason trials and gave the accused 
the safeguards for the fair hearing of his case, which had 
been hitherto denied. 

3. The Act of Grace (1690).— William had not been 
long on the throne before a reaction set in. The Whigs were 



328 William and Mary. 

determined to wreak vengeance on the Tories for their pro- 
scription during the years 1 681-1688, and as a Bill of Indem- 
nity was necessary to pass over the acts of those who had 
supported James II., they tried to make it a measure of 
retaliation by excepting from its scope a large number of 
Tories. At the same time they endeavoured practically to 
disfranchise the Tories throughout the country. This William 
decided to prevent, for he aimed at ruling independently of 
parties, and by nature leaned rather to the Tories, whose high 
prerogative views he regarded with favour. The struggle of 
parties became so violent that Parliament was dissolved, and 
William threatened to leave England. A new Parliament was 
summoned in 1690, and in it the Tories were the dominant 
party. The Ministry was remodelled ; Halifax was removed 
from office, and a larger proportion of Tories was introduced. 
Danby practically became head of the Ministry. The Whig 
demand for vengeance was stopped by the Act of Grace, which 
granted an indemnity for all Acts prior to the Revolution, and 
only excluded a small number of offenders from its provisions. 
4. The Revolution in Scotland (1689-1692). — In 
Scotland the Revolution was marked by greater turbulence 
than in England. The episcopal clergy were driven from 
their benefices, in many cases with personal violence. A 
Convention met at Edinburgh and declared that James II. 
had forfeited the Crown, and conferred it on William and 
Mary, by what was called the Claim of Right. Episcopacy 
was declared abolished. Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount 
Dundee, the chief Jacobite adherent, withdrew to the High- 
lands, and organised the clans, which had always been hostile 
to the Campbells and the Whigs. An army under Mackay 
was sent north, and a battle was fought in the pass of Killie- 
crankie, which leads from Perthshire into the Highlands. 
Mackay's troops were unable to resist the fierce onrush of 
the Highlanders, and fled panic-stricken. Dundee was, how- 
ever, killed in the hour of victory, and his successor, General 
Cannon, was a leader of no ability. Mackay defeated a force 
of Highlanders at St. Johnstones in Perthshire, and after a 



William and Mary. 329 

second defeat at Dunkeld the clansmen retreated to their 
mountainous fastnesses in the north. The Jacobite cause for 
the time being was dead (1689). 

To complete the pacification of the country an amnesty 
was proclaimed in 1691, for all those who before January 1, 
1692, should take an oath to live peaceably. The oath was 
taken by the majority of the clans, but Maclan, chief of the 
Macdonalds of Glencoe, failed to do so till January 6, 1692. 
The Master of Stair, William's secretary for Scotland, obtained 
from his master an order "to extirpate that set of thieves." 
A number of soldiers from a Campbell regiment were sent to 
Glencoe, and were entertained hospitably by the unsuspecting 
Macdonalds. When all the passes had been secured, the 
soldiers attempted the massacre of their hosts. Only a small 
number were killed, but the village was burnt, and the rest 
were driven into the mountains where many perished from 
cold. The atrocious massacre of Glencoe is the darkest act 
in William's career ; but its ferocity served to cow the spirit of 
revolt in the Highlands till the rebellion of 17 15. 

5. The Struggle in Ireland (1689-1691). — In i66i,by 
the Act of Settlement, it had been arranged that the Crom#el|iin 
settlers should retain their possessions or be compensated, if 
their lands were restored to the Catholic and Protestant 
royalists. This compromise, however, had proved unwork- 
able, and in the end only about one-third of their estates 
had been restored to the royalists. James, from the first, had 
looked on Ireland as a refuge, in case of trouble in England, 
and under Tyrconnel the Protestant ascendency had been 
completely broken down. At the Revolution, therefore, the 
Protestants, fearing for their lives, abandoned their estates, 
and took refuge in the towns, occupying Londonderry and 
Enniskillen in the name of William and Mary. 

In March, 1689, James, with a number of French officers, 
landed at Kinsale. On reaching Dublin he found his own party 
divided between those who wanted to use Ireland as a centre 
from which to promote his restoration in England, and those 
who hoped to establish the independence of Ireland once for 



IRELAND 

1 171 to 1798. 

English Miles 
o 10 20 30 40 50 60 




Bantry 



Walker &Cockerellsc. 



William and Mary. 331 

all. Of the latter, who were the stronger party, Tyrconnel 
was the chief, and under his influence an Irish Parliament was 
summoned, which repealed the Act of Settlement, and passed 
an act of attainder against over 2000 persons. Meanwhile 
the siege of the Protestant strongholds was undertaken. 
Londonderry was defended by Walker, a clergyman, and 
Major- Baker, and the blockade became so rigorous, that the 
brave inhabitants were brought to the verge of starvation. 
William sent a fleet, but nothing was done until on July 28, 
1689, when two ships broke their way through the boom 
across the river which leads from Lough Foyle, and London- 
derry, after a siege of 105 days, was saved. Three days later 
the Protestants in Enniskillen sallied forth under Colonel 
Wolseley and defeated 6000 regular troops at Newton 
Butler. 

The successful defence of Londonderry and Enniskillen 
saved Protestantism in Ulster from destruction, but help from 
England was still urgently needed. In August, 1689, Marshal 
Schomberg, the veteran French general, who had been expelled 
from the service of Louis XIV. on account of his religion, 
landed in Ireland with an English army composed mainly of 
raw recruits. Hundreds of the soldiers died of a pestilence 
which broke out in the entrenched camp at Dundalk, and 
Schomberg in these circumstances dared not risk a decisive 
engagement. 

In the summer of 1 690 William himself crossed to Ireland 
and marched south from Belfast. The royalist army, under 
James, fell behind the Boyne, and on July 1, 1690, the cause 
of the Revolution was upheld by a great victory. The Irish 
infantry fled at the first attack, and the Irish cavalry with the 
French contingent were unable to prevent a disastrous defeat. 
James fled to Dublin, and shortly after sailed for France. 
William entered Dublin in triumph, and completed the con- 
quest of the east coast of Ireland. Meanwhile the Irish 
royalists held out at Limerick, under their gallant leader 
Sarsfield, and William's attempts to capture the town by 
assault failed. He, therefore, raised the siege, and in 



222 William and Mary. 

September, 1690, returned to England, leaving his forces 
under the direction of the Dutch general, Ginkel. 

Connaught and Munster still remained unsubdued, but in 
June, 1 691, Ginkel forced the passage of the Shannon, and 
captured Athlone. The French commander, St. Ruth, fell 
back to the hill of Aughrim, where he entrenched himself 
behind a morass. A desperate struggle was fought between 
the English and Irish, but St. Ruth was killed, and the Irish 
were routed with the loss of 6000 men. Sarsfield organised 
the last resistance at Limerick, but Ginkel was strongly pro- 
vided with artillery, and the Irish leader therefore agreed to an 
honourable capitulation. By the Treaty of Limerick (October, 
1 691), it was agreed that all Irish soldiers who wished should 
be shipped to France, and an amnesty, together with the 
privileges enjoyed under Charles II., was guaranteed to all 
Irish Catholics who took the oath of allegiance. 

The Treaty of Limerick was made only to be shamelessly 
broken. The Protestant ascendency was re-established in its 
most odious form, and a century of malignant oppression 
followed. Under William III., Anne, George I., and George 
II., a penal code was built up of unexampled cruelty. An 
Irish Catholic was excluded from Parliament, the corporations, 
the magistracies, and the juries. He could not enter the 
University, or act as a schoolmaster, or be the guardian of 
a child. He was deprived of the right of bequeathing his 
land by will, and if his eldest son in his lifetime became a 
Protestant, the latter could prevent him selling or mortgaging 
his estates. Every Catholic priest had to be registered ; the 
penalty was banishment, and death if he returned. If a priest 
apostatised he was rewarded with an annuity of £30. All 
Catholic bishops were banished, and if subsequently found in 
the country were liable to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
Rewards were offered for the apprehension of bishops and 
unregistered priests, and the hateful profession of informer was 
encouraged in every direction. 

" It may be possible," writes a modern historian, " to find 
in the statute books, both of Protestant and Catholic countries, 



William and Mary. 333 

laws corresponding to most parts of the Irish penal code, and 
in some respects surpassing its most atrocious provisions, but 
it is not the less true that that code, taken as a whole, has a 
character entirely distinctive. It was directed not against the 
few but against the many. It was not the persecution of a 
sect, but the degradation of a nation. It was the instrument 
employed by a conquering race, supported by a neighbouring 
power, to crush to the dust the people among whom they were 
planted. And, indeed, when w r e remember that the greater 
part of it was in force for nearly a century, that the victims of 
its cruelties formed at least three-fourths of the nation . . . 
and that it was enacted without the provocation of any 
rebellion, in defiance of a treaty which distinctly guaranteed 
the Irish Catholics from any further oppression on account of 
their religion, it may be justly regarded as one of the blackest 
pages in the history of persecution." x 

6. The Struggle on the Continent (1689-1697). — 
Since 1 689 Louis XIV. had been engaged in a struggle with 
enemies on all sides. He had to defend himself on the south 
against Spain, and on the east against attacks from Germany, 
Holland, and the Spanish Netherlands, while his fleets had to 
meet the combined naval forces of the Dutch and English. 
The conquest of Ireland enabled William to bring all the 
resources of England and Holland against France. But in 
spite of the vastness of the coalition, Louis more than held his 
own. In 1690 Admiral Tourville defeated the English and 
Dutch fleet under Torrington, off Beachy Head, and England 
was threatened with invasion. The French, however, con- 
tented themselves with burning the village of Teignmouth, and 
the danger passed away. In 1692 Louis planned the invasion 
of England, and gathered a fleet of transports for the expedi- 
tion, but the English fleet, under Admiral Russell, encountered 
Tourville off La Hogue, and inflicted a defeat on him which 
made the invasion impossible. 

In the Netherlands the struggle was fiercely contested. 
Year after year William crossed over to the Continent to 
1 Lecky, "History of England," vol. i. p. 301. 



334 William and Mary and William III. 

organise the resistance. With all his abilities as a general, he 
could do little more than hold his own. In 1692 he was 
defeated by the great French general, Marshal Luxemburg, 
at Steinkerk, and Namur was taken; and in 1693 another 
French victory was gained over the allies at Neerwinden. 
In 1694 an expedition to attack Brest was planned. The 
scheme was revealed to James by Marlborough, who had been 
disgraced by William for his treasonable correspondence with 
his former master. Talmash, the commander, found the 
French well prepared, and was mortally wounded during the 
attack. In 1695 the death of Marshal Luxemburg deprived 
Louis of his greatest strategist, and William was able to retake 
Namur and capture Marshal Boufflers. The resources of 
France were now exhausted, and Louis agreed to the Peace 
of Ryswick (1697). Hitherto his reign had been a series of 
triumphant aggressions, but at Ryswick he had to purchase 
a peace by giving up all he had gained on his eastern frontier 
since the Peace of Nymwegen in 1678, with the exception of 
Strassburg. It was arranged that the Dutch should garrison 
the frontier fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands. Louis was 
compelled to recognise William as King of England. 

7. William III. and Parliament (1690-1697). — William 
was never popular in England. His cold and suspicious 
demeanour alienated the sympathies of his subjects, and con- 
stant ill-health made him withdraw as much as possible from 
public display. Easy of manner and even light-hearted on the 
field of battle, and in the face of many reverses, to his ministers 
and courtiers he showed only the sour and harsh attributes 
of his character. From his earliest days he had lived in 
an atmosphere of intrigue, and his experience of English 
politicians did not prompt him to take a generous view of 
human nature. The very men who had brought about his 
accession were willing to betray him. Admiral Russell, 
Godolphin, the head of the treasury, Marlborough, and Shrews- 
bury, at one time or another opened negotiations with James. 
In 1694 Queen Mary, to whom William was warmly attached, 
died from smallpox, and her loss weakened William's hold 



William III. 335 

on the feelings of his subjects. Parliament was torn by the 
party wrangles of Whigs and Tories, and William's ministers 
intrigued against one another. But about 1693 William 
adopted an expedient which was destined to have important 
constitutional results. The unprincipled Sunderland, who had 
purchased the pardon of William by his desertion of James, 
suggested the formation of a Cabinet drawn entirely from the 
Whigs. There thus came into power the famous Whig Junto, 
composed of Somers, Wharton, Montague, and Admiral Rus- 
sell. The Tories, Carmarthen, Nottingham, and Godolphin, 
were gradually removed from office. Reliance on a united 
Ministry, representing the majority in the Commons, improved 
William's relations with Parliament, and enabled him to bring 
the war with France to a successful conclusion. 

The heavy financial strain of the war led to another political 
expedient — the foundation of the Bank of England. A Scots- 
man named Paterson suggested to Montague the foundation 
of a bank which should have the exclusive custom of Govern- 
ment, thus practically receiving a Government guarantee of 
solvency. The result was that in 1694 the Bank of England 
was founded, and made a loan of a million and a quarter to 
the Government at 8 per cent, interest. The credit which its 
connection with the Government gave to the bank soon made 
it the greatest banking institution in the kingdom. At the 
same time, it made the moneyed interest a strong supporter of 
the Revolution settlement, for it was clear that a Jacobite 
restoration would entail the repudiation of the National Debt 
contracted by William to resist James and his protector Louis. 
Montague also improved the system of taxation by a reassess- 
ment of the Land Tax in 1692, which greatly increased its 
yield ; and in 1696 the coinage, which was in a very bad state, 
was called in and a new coinage issued. The Bank of England 
and the recoinage conferred great benefits on the trading 
classes. 

8. The Spanish Succession Question.— Since 1665 
Louis XIV. had steadily kept in view the project of placing 
a Bourbon on the throne of Spain. Charles II., the last of 



33 6 



William III. 



the Spanish Hapsburgs who succeeded Philip IV. in 1665, was 
weak both in body and mind, and every statesman in Europe 
knew that his death would raise an international question of 
the gravest character. (1) If the succession went to the nearest 
of kin, then the Dauphin Louis, son of Maria Theresa, eldest 
sister of Charles II., and wife of Louis XIV., was heir to Spain. 
Against this, however, was the renunciation of her succession 
rights made by Maria Theresa at her marriage. The younger 
sister of Charles II., Margaret, had married the Emperor 
Leopold I., and their daughter Maria Antonia, the Electress 
of Bavaria, had a son Joseph, the Electoral Prince. But to 
prevent the Spanish inheritance being diverted from the 
Austrian Hapsburgs to the Bavarian House, Leopold had 
caused his daughter Maria Antonia, on her marriage to the 
Elector of Bavaria, to renounce her Spanish rights. (2) Putting 
aside then the claims of the descendants of the sisters of 
Charles II., the claims of the descendants of his two aunts 
had to be considered, and here also France and Austria were 
rivals, for Louis XIV. was the son of Anne, the elder daughter, 
and Leopold the son of Maria, the younger daughter, of 
Philip III. Anne, who had married Louis XIII., had re- 
nounced her rights, but Maria, the wife of Ferdinand III., had 
made no renunciation. The French Government refused to 
recognise the validity of the renunciations made by the two 
French queens, Anne and Maria Theresa. As the Spanish 
inheritance included Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, 
Naples, Sicily, and Spanish America, both Louis and Leopold 
knew that Europe would not allow these vast possessions to 
be annexed to either France or the Empire. Each, therefore, 
declared his willingness to pass on his claims : Louis designated 
his grandson Philip of Anjou ; while Leopold ceded his rights 
to his second son, the Archduke Charles. 

9. The Partition Treaties of 1698 and 1700.— The 
Peace of Ryswick had been followed in England by a Tory 
reaction, and William found himself hampered by a powerful 
Opposition. Parliament forced him to reduce the army from 
80,000 to 7000, and his Dutch guards were ordered to leave 



THE SPANISH SUCCESSION QUESTION. 



I. — The Claim through the Sisters of Charles II. of Spain. 



Philip IV, 
I 



.1 I I 

Maria Theresa = Louis XIV. Margaret = Emperor Charles II. 

Leopold I. d. 1700. 



Louis, the Dauphin, Maria Antonia = Elector of 



d. 1711. 



Bavaria. 



Louis, Philip V. • Joseph, 

Duke of Burgundy, of Spain, the Electoral Prince, 

d. 1712. DukeofAnjou. d. 1699. 



II.— The Claim though the Aunts of Charles II. of Spain. 
Philip III. 



Philip IV. Anne = Louis Maria = Ferdinand III. 

I I I I 

Maria Margaret, Charles II. Louis XIV. 
Theresa, m. Leo- 1 

m. Louis pold I. Margaret = Leopold I. = Eleanor 

XIV. etc. I ofNeu- 

burg. 
I 

\~~ " I 

Emperor Charles 

Joseph I., (Archduke), 

d. 171 1. Emperor, 

171 1- 1740. 



338 William III. 

the country. The Commons appointed a committee to inquire 
into the royal grants of the Irish lands which had been con- 
fiscated. The inquiry revealed some instances of scandalous 
favouritism, and a Resumption Bill was passed nullifying the 
grants (1700). 

Meanwhile, William had been engaged in negotiating a 
settlement of the Spanish difficulty on the basis of a partition ; 
and in October, 1698, a treaty was signed at the Hague 
between England, Holland, and France, by which it was 
agreed that Spain, the Indies, and the Netherlands were to 
go to Joseph of Bavaria, Naples and Sicily to France, and the 
Milanese to the Archduke Charles. The treaty was kept 
secret, but rumours of it reached Madrid. The Spaniards 
were justly angered at the attempt to divide their possessions 
without their being consulted, and Charles II. made a will 
leaving the whole inheritance to Joseph. The young prince 
died shortly after, and both the will and the Partition Treaty 
fell to the ground. A second Partition Treaty was therefore 
signed in 1700, by which the Archduke Charles was to be 
King of Spain, the Indies, and the Netherlands ; and the French 
share was to be increased by the Milanese, which was to be 
exchanged for Lorraine by an arrangement with the duke. 
Meanwhile, the Marquis d'Harcourt, the French ambassador 
at Madrid, had cleverly worked on the feelings of the Spanish 
patriotic party, and had contrived to spread the belief that the 
Spanish inheritance could only be preserved intact if placed 
under the protection of France. Charles II. was induced to 
make a new will, leaving the entire Spanish possessions to 
Philip of Anjou ; if the latter refused, they were to be offered 
to the Archduke Charles, but in neither case was there to be 
any partition. Charles died a month later. 

Louis now found himself in a position of great perplexity. 
If he decided to abide by the Partition Treaty, he would 
see the Archduke Charles proclaimed king at Madrid, and 
would have to rely on the assistance of his lifelong enemy, 
William III., to gain the share of the Spanish inheritance 
which the Partition Treaty guaranteed to him. On the other 



William III. 339 

hand, to accept the inheritance for his grandson would be a 
direct challenge to the whole of Europe. After much hesita- 
tion he decided to accept the risk of a European war, and 
Philip was proclaimed King of Spain. 

10. The Tory Predominance (i 700-1 701.) — Louis 
XIV. had been emboldened to disregard the Partition Treaty 
because he knew that the Tory majority in Parliament would 
not consent to another war. To pacify the Tory party William 
had been obliged to displace some of his Whig ministers, and 
to give office to the Tories, Rochester, Godolphin, and Hedges 
(1700). In spite of this the Tories proceeded to impeach the 
late Whig ministers, Russell, Montague, Somers, and Portland, 
mainly on account of their share in the Partition Treaties. 

In 1700 the death of Anne's last surviving child, the Duke 
of Gloucester, necessitated a fresh settlement of the succession, 
and in 1701 the Act of Settlement was passed. This enacted 
that on the death of Anne the Crown was to pass to Sophia, the 
Electress of Hanover, and her Protestant descendants. Some 
constitutional clauses were added which were to come into 
force with the accession of the House of Hanover. These 
were : (1) The sovereign was not to leave the kingdom without 
the consent of Parliament; (2) the nation should not engage in 
any war on account of those possessions of the sovereign 
which did not belong to the English Crown, except with the 
consent of Parliament; (3) no alien should be a Privy 
Councillor, or member of either House of Parliament, or 
hold any office under the Crown; (4) no minister of the 
Crown was to be a member of the Commons ; (5) the 
Government was to be carried on by the Privy Council, and 
not by the inner circle or Cabinet; (6) judges were only 
to be removed from the Bench on a joint address of both 
Houses ; (7) a pardon under the Great Seal could not plead 
as a bar to an impeachment. 

Clauses 1, 2, and 3, were intended as slights on William 
himself, and of these the first was repealed under George I., 
while under Anne the fourth was repealed, and the fifth 
modified so as to allow a minister who held an office, created 



240 William III. 

before 1705, to sit in the Commons, provided that on accept- 
ing office he was re-elected by his constituency. This was 
intended to check the corrupt influence of the Crown over 
members of the Commons. 

11. The Whig Reaction (1 701). —On the Continent 
Louis XIV. seemed able to carry all before him. With the 
exception of the emperor, Leopold I., the European powers 
one after the other recognised Philip of Anjou as King of 
Spain. By pouring his troops into the Spanish Netherlands, 
Louis was able to surround the Dutch garrisons in the barrier 
fortresses and coerce Holland into acknowledging Philip. 
Even William himself, weakened by the attacks of the Tories, 
had to give way and write a letter of congratulation to Philip. 
But already there were signs that the Tories had gone too far, 
and, as the aggressions of France continued, the war party in 
England revived. William began to negotiate the formation 
of a Grand Alliance against France and Spain. Even now he 
was willing that Philip should retain the Spanish Crown, if the 
claims of the emperor received satisfaction ; but all negotia- 
tions were broken off by an astonishing act of folly on the 
part of Louis. On September 6, 1701, James II. died at 
St. Germains, and Louis at once recognised his son James 
Edward as King of England. The whole country was roused 
by this insulting breach of the Treaty of Ryswick. Parliament 
was dissolved ; at the elections a larger number of Whigs 
were elected, and the Whigs were summoned to office. An 
Abjuration Act was passed, imposing an oath abjuring the 
claims of the Pretender on officials in Church and State. 
Unfortunately, at the moment when his schemes were bearing 
fruit, William was injured by his horse falling under him, and 
the shock ended fatally. He died on March 8, 1702, leaving 
to other hands the task of resisting Louis XIV. 



William III. 



34 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

~ . AD - 

Toleration Act 1689. 

Battle of Killiecrankie 1689, 

Battle of the Boyne 1690 

Battle of La Hogue ......... 1692, 

Bank of England founded 1694, 

Death of Queen Mary 1694, 

Peace of Ryswick . . . 1697, 

Partition Treaties ........ 1698, 1700, 

Act of Settlement 1701 




VValker & Cockerell i 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

ANNE (1702- 1 7 14). 

1. The Grand Alliance. — The accession of Anne, a pious 
and kind-hearted princess, revived the popularity of the 
monarchy. The queen was a staunch Anglican, and her 
sympathies were with the Tories ; but her character was feebly 
pliant, and her policy easily fell under the influence of those 
who had gained her affections. For the greater part of her 
reign she was ruled by her imperious favourite, Sarah Jennings, 
the wife of Churchill, Earl of Marlborough, with whom she 
lived on terms of the warmest friendship. Marlborough him- 
self, the real ruler of England, became the leader of the great 
league against France. As he was a Tory, it was natural that 
the Tories, Godolphin, Nottingham, and Hedges, should 
obtain office. But the war with France, the legacy of 
William III., was a Whig war, and in this fact lay the germs 
of the ultimate rupture between Marlborough and the queen. 

Marlborough at once, as Commander-in-chief, drew together 
the threads of the Grand Alliance, which comprised the Emperor, 
England, Prussia, the Elector Palatine, and most of the German 
States, and was joined in 1703 by Portugal and Savoy. On 
the Continent the leaders of the coalition were Heinsius, Grand 
Pensionary of Holland, and Prince Eugene, the Imperial 
General. The original aim of the powers was to secure a 
share of the Spanish inheritance for Austria, a barrier against 
France for Holland, and securities against the union of the 
French and Spanish Crowns. But the claims of the allies soon 
became more exacting, and in the end the coalition demanded 
that the House of Bourbon should retire from Spain. The 

343 



344 Anne. 

war of the Spanish Succession was carried on in four direc- 
tions : in Italy for the possession of the Milanese, in Germany 
for the control of the Danube, in the Netherlands to reconquer 
the barrier fortresses seized by Louis, and in Spain to expel 
Philip V. The control of the Milanese and the Spanish 
Netherlands secured to Louis a strong position, and his 
alliance with the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne gave his 
armies access to Germany. These advantages, and the in- 
domitable fidelity of his subjects, enabled him for twelve years 
to defy Europe. 

2. Campaigns of 1 702-1 704. — In Italy the war was 
indecisive in 1702, but the defection of the Duke of Savoy 
in 1703 from the French alliance threatened the French hold 
on the Milanese. The operations in the Low Countries were 
directed by Marlborough against the chief fortresses of the 
Spanish Netherlands, and by the end of 1702 he had cut 
off the French from the Lower Rhine and secured Holland 
from attack. The Elector of Cologne was expelled from his 
Electorate. For his services Marlborough was rewarded with 
the title of duke. In upper Germany the allies suffered 
reverses. The imperial troops were defeated at Friedlingen 
by the French general Villars (1702), and at Hochstadt, near 
Blenheim, by the Elector of Bavaria (1703). 

In 1704 Louis prepared to make a great effort to bring 
the war to a close by striking an overwhelming blow at Austria. 
His plan was to effect a junction between a large French army 
and the forces of Bavaria, and then to advance directly on 
Vienna and dictate terms to Leopold. Marshal Tallard led 
15,000 men through the Black Forest, and joined forces with 
the French and Bavarian troops under the Elector. The 
emperor saw himself threatened by the Franco-Bavarian army 
in the west, while at the same time an army of Hungarian 
rebels advanced on Vienna from the east. To save the 
emperor, Marlborough determined on a counter-blow, but 
the plan seemed so dangerous that he only divulged it to 
Godolphin and Prince Eugene. It was to march south with 
all the troops that could be spared from the defence of 



Anne. 345 

Holland, to pass by without attacking the enemy's fortresses 
on his march, and to push through Germany in order to fight 
the French on the Danube. The Dutch States General were 
only informed that the intention was to fight a campaign on 
the Moselle ; but when Marlborough reached Coblenz he ad- 
vanced rapidly south along the Rhine to Mayence, and thence 
up the Neckar into Wurtemburg. He struck the Danube 
near Ulm, and stormed the hill of Schellenberg overlooking 
Donauworth. Shortly after, the Bavarians were reinforced by 
25,000 men under Tallard, and Marlborough himself effected 
a junction with Prince Eugene. The hostile armies came into 
touch near the village of Blenheim, and here, on August 13, 
1704, one of the greatest battles in history was fought. The 
French and Bavarians were defeated, with a loss of 40,000 
men. As a result Vienna was saved, Bavaria was conquered, 
and the French were driven across the Rhine. 

Ten days before the battle of Blenheim an English fleet 
under Sir George Rooke, after an unsuccessful attack on 
Barcelona, surprised and captured the fortress of Gibraltar. 

3. The Campaigns of 1 705-1 706. — Marlborough was 
constantly hampered by the timidity of the Dutch Government, 
and this was largely the cause that in 1705 no great engage- 
ments were fought in the Netherlands. In Spain, however, 
Barcelona was captured by a force of English and Austrian 
troops under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the 
inhabitants of the provinces of Catalonia and Valencia, 
acknowledged the Archduke Charles as King of Spain. These 
successes stimulated an attack on Spain from the west, and in 
1706 Lord Galway advanced from Portugal and occupied 
Madrid. This year (1706) was also marked by another great 
victory won by Marlborough at Ramillies over the French 
commanded by Villeroi, in which the French lost 15,000 men 
and all their baggage and artillery. The fruits of the victory 
were the chief towns in the Spanish Netherlands, Brussels, 
Ostend, Antwerp, and Ghent, which surrendered in rapid 
succession. The French frontier now lay open to attack. In 
Italy also France experienced reverses, for Prince Eugene 



346 Anne. 

forced the French to raise the siege of Turin, and inflicted a 
severe defeat on them outside the town. The French cause 
in Italy was ruined. 

4. The Disasters of 1707. — In 1706 the French had 
been driven from Italy and the Netherlands, and Louis had 
been compelled to offer terms by which Philip was to retire 
from Spain, if Milan, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia were guaran- 
teed to him. These terms were rejected by the allies, and the 
war therefore continued. In 1707, however, the tide turned 
in favour of France. The allies were forced to retire from 
Madrid, and the Duke of Berwick, the illegitimate son of 
James II. and of Marlborough's sister, Arabella Churchill, 
drove the forces of the Archduke Charles out of Castile, and 
defeated Galway at Almanza. In Germany also France 
showed renewed activity, for Villars crossed the Rhine at the 
head of an army, which defeated the Imperialists at Stolhofen, 
and devastated the Palatinate. The attempt of Prince Eugene 
to create a diversion by invading France and by laying siege 
to Toulon failed disastrously. 

5. The Campaign of 1 708-1 709. — In spite of the suc- 
cesses of 1707 France was now reduced to desperate straits. 
National bankruptcy was impending, and the burden of taxa- 
tion fell with crushing weight on the people. But Louis met 
all difficulties with inflexible courage, and in 1708, by a 
supreme effort, five armies were sent into the field. A large 
army under Vendome was poured into the Spanish Netherlands, 
and captured Ghent and Bruges. Marlborough hurried after 
the French, and at Oudenarde, on July n, 1708, annihilated 
the greater part of Vendome's army.- He was shortly after 
joined by the Austrian forces, under the command of Prince 
Eugene, and the combined armies crossed the French frontier 
and besieged Lille, which was defended by Marshal Boufflers 
and 15,000 men. After a gallant defence lasting sixty days, 
Boufrlers surrendered. 

The winter of 1 708-1 709 was terribly severe, and the 
French people, ground down by taxation, were brought to the 
verge of starvation. Even Louis felt himself compelled to sue 



348 Anne. 

for terms. Torcy, minister of foreign affairs, was sent to the 
Hague to negotiate a peace. The allies demanded the cession 
of the whole Spanish inheritance to the Archduke Charles, the 
expulsion of the Pretender from France, the restoration to the 
Empire of all territories gained since 1648, and a barrier of 
fortresses for the Dutch. If Philip refused to evacuate Spain, 
Louis was to join in expelling him. These demands, known 
as the Preliminaries of the Hague (1709), were transmitted to 
Louis by Torcy after protracted negotiations had failed to 
induce the allies to modify their terms. 

Louis had not fallen so low as to accept the humiliating 
conditions offered to him, and in a letter to the governors of 
the French provinces, he appealed directly to his people. The 
nation, exhausted though it was, responded with an enthusiasm 
which frustrated the calculations of the allies. By almost 
superhuman efforts an army of 100,000 men was sent into the 
field under Villars and Boumers to save France from invasion. 
The allies, on the other hand, were determined to force their 
way into France, and dictate terms under the walls of Paris. 
Some formidable fortresses stood in the way, and these it was 
the object of Villars to defend. Tournay was captured by 
the allies, and Mons was attacked. If this was captured 
France would lie open to an invasion, and Villars therefore 
entrenched himself at Malplaquet. The battle which followed 
was the most fiercely contested in the war. Both Villars and 
Eugene were wounded, and it was only after losing 20,000 
men that the allies could dislodge the French from their en- 
trenchments. The French only lost half the number, and they 
were able to retreat in good order from the field. Malplaquet 
was Marlborough's last great victory. 

6. The End of the War (1710-1712). — In the spring 
of 17 10 a conference took place at Gertruydenberg, between 
French and Dutch representatives. Louis offered to recognise 
the Archduke Charles as King of Spain and cede a barrier of 
fortresses to Holland. The Dutch, however, insisted that 
Louis himself should expel Philip from Spain, and Louis at 
once refused the insulting condition. Even if Louis had been 



Anne. 



349 



willing that Philip should leave Spain, the Spaniards, whose 
patriotic feelings were now thoroughly aroused, would not have 
allowed it. After the defeat of the allies at Almanza (1707), 
reinforcements had arrived under Stanhope and the Austrian 
general, Stahremberg. In 17 10 the Anglo-Austrian army 
defeated Philip at Saragossa, and the archduke was able to 
enter Madrid ; but the attitude of the inhabitants was so 
hostile that he found it prudent to withdraw. Louis, to help 
Philip, sent Vendome to command the Spanish troops. He 
attacked Stanhope at Brihuega, and forced him to surrender, 
and then turning against Stahremberg, fought a battle at Villa 
Viciosa which was indecisive, but was followed by the retreat 
of the Austrians into Catalonia. 

7. The Whigs and Tories (1 702-171*0). — At the outset 
of her reign the queen, as we have seen, had given office to the 
Tories. But Marlborough saw that it would be unsafe to rely 
wholly on the Tory party, and a few moderate Whigs were 
retained. The plan of a mixed Cabinet did not work well, and 
as the Tory dislike for the war showed itself, Marlborough 
and Godolphin gradually drew nearer to the Whigs. In 1704 
Nottingham and the other High Tories were dismissed, and 
replaced by the Moderate Tories, Harley and St. John. At 
the general election of 1705 a Whig majority was returned, 
and more Whigs were admitted to office at the expense of the 
Tories. In 1706, Sunderland, the son of the minister of James 
II., was forced on the queen by the influence of the Duchess 
of Marlborough and Godolphin, and in 1708 Harley and St. 
John were deprived of their posts in the Ministry, which now 
practically became a Whig Cabinet, under the control of the 
Junto, Somers, Wharton, 'Russell (now Lord Orford), and 
Sunderland. Robert Walpole, a young Norfolk squire, became 
secretary of war. This shifting of the balance of parties was 
necessary to the plans of Marlborough and Godolphin for the 
continuance of the war, but it entailed the loss of the queen's 
favour and their own subjection to the Whigs. Anne was 
already chafing under the imperious rule of the Duchess of 
Marlborough, and Harley had seen this, and had found for the 



350 Anne. 

queen a new favourite in his cousin Abigail Hill, who had 
married Colonel Masham. To make himself independent of 
party politics, Marlborough asked to be appointed Captain- 
General for life, but met with a refusal. 

The crisis was reached in 17 10, when the Whig Ministry 
decided to impeach Dr. Sacheverell for a foolish sermon up- 
holding the Divine Right of kings. The excitement which 
the trial caused throughout the country showed the extent to 
which a Tory reaction had progressed. The country was, in 
fact, sick of the war, and Marlborough, whose great weakness 
was a scandalous love of money, was openly accused of 
prolonging it for his own ends. Anne, secretly encouraged 
by Harley, plucked up courage to dismiss Sunderland and 
Godolphin, and after a general election, which returned a 
Tory majority, a Tory Ministry was formed, with Harley at its 
head and St. John as secretary of state. Early in 17 n the 
Duchess of Marlborough was dismissed from Court. 

8. The Peace of Utrecht (171 3). — Louis XIV. was now 
safe from the humiliations which in 17 10 had seemed inevi- 
table. In 1 7 1 1 the emperor Joseph I. died, and the Archduke 
Charles succeeded to the Imperial crown. This profoundly 
altered the balance of affairs, for the Spanish inheritance in the 
hands of the emperor would be almost as dangerous to Europe 
as the rule of a Bourbon prince. Throughout 17 n secret 
negotiations were carried on between England and France, 
and these resulted in the Preliminaries of London, by which 
England gained the advantages she required, and arranged the 
main outlines of the terms for her allies. When Marlborough 
returned after a campaign on the French frontiers without any 
great results, he was dismissed from his command, and charges 
of financial fraud were brought against him. To crush the 
opposition of the Whigs in the Lords twelve new Tory peers 
were created (17 n). The Jacobite Duke of Ormond was 
given the command of the army, with instructions to remain 
inactive. In January, 17 12, the Congress of Utrecht met, and 
after long negotiations, in which England acted as arbiter 
between France and the allies, peace was signed in March, 



Anne. 



351 



1 7 13. The emperor refused the terms offered, and did not 
make peace with France till 17 14. 

By the Peace of Utrecht England received from France, 
Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson's Bay territories ; 
and from Spain, Gibraltar, Minorca, and the Asiento, or right 
of supplying negro slaves to the Spanish colonies, together 
with the right of sending one ship a year to trade with South 
America. Louis agreed to dismantle Dunkirk and recognise 
the Protestant succession as arranged by the Act of Settlement 
(1701). Holland acquired a barrier of fortresses. Philip V. 
remained king of Spain, and was to cede to the emperor Milan, 
Naples, Sardinia, and the Spanish Netherlands, while the Duke 
of Savoy was to have Sicily with the title of king. Philip 
renounced all rights of succession to the French throne, and 
the crowns of France and Spain were never to be united. 

9. The Union with Scotland (1707). — The union of 
the English and Scottish Parliaments had been a favourite 
project of William III., but it had been prevented by mutual 
jealousies. The Scots were keenly sensitive lest their in- 
dependence should suffer through English predominance, 
and the English were not prepared to share their trading 
privileges with their northern neighbours. The Scots also 
felt that they had a special grievance in the failure of their 
great colonial plan, the Darien scheme. This scheme to 
colonise the isthmus of Panama had been attempted in 1698, 
but had been a complete failure, and the Scots complained 
that the interests of the colonists had been sacrificed by 
William III. to propitiate Spain. In 1702 commissioners 
had been appointed to negotiate a legislative union, but the 
scheme broke down, and in 1703 the Scottish Parliament 
passed the Bill of Security, by which, on the death of Anne, 
the successor to the Scottish throne should not be the same 
as the successor in England, unless securities were given for 
Scotland's freedom, religion, and trade. The English Parlia- 
ment retorted in 1704 by making all Scotsmen aliens after 
Christmas 1705, by prohibiting imports from Scotland, and by 
ordering the border fortresses to be strengthened. Fortunately, 



35 2 Anne. 

moderate counsels averted a dangerous struggle. In 1706 the 
commissioners met again, and in 1707 a Treaty of Union was 
drawn up. It was agreed that there should be one Parliament 
for the United Kingdom of Great Britain, to which Scotland 
should send forty-five members of the Commons, and sixteen 
representative peers chosen by the Scottish peerage. The 
Presbyterian Church was recognised as the Church of Scotland, 
and the laws of Scotland were to remain in force. The Scottish 
national debt was paid off, and the shareholders in the Darien 
company were indemnified. Scotland and England were to 
enjoy the same commercial rights. The crosses of St. George 
of England and St. Andrew of Scotland were combined in the 
new flag, the " Union Jack," and the arms of England and 
Scotland were emblazoned on the royal shield. 

10. Jacobite Intrigues (1713-1714). — The last two 
years of Anne's reign were occupied by a struggle over the 
succession to the throne. Those Tories who still clung to 
the doctrine of Divine Right were anxious that Anne's half- 
brother, James Edward, should succeed, and pressure was 
brought to bear on him to renounce the Catholic faith in 
return for the prospect of the Crown of England. To this 
suggestion the Pretender returned an absolute refusal. But 
there were other Tories, of whom St. John was the chief, who 
looked at matters solely from the point of view of politics, and 
viewed with apprehension the possibility of a Hanoverian 
sovereign bound by the conditions of his accession to favour 
the Whigs. How far this section of the Tory party was pre- 
pared to go in upsetting the Act of Settlement (1701) was 
not clear, and the question was complicated by the personal 
jealousies of Harley and St. John. Harley was now lord 
treasurer, and in 1 7 1 1 was created Earl of Oxford, while in 
1712 St. John was made Viscount Bolingbroke. The treasurer 
was, however, weak and vacillating, and his second-rate 
abilities were completely eclipsed by Bolingbroke's brilliant 
and versatile qualities. 

As was usually the case under the Stuarts, the religious 
question came to the front at a political crisis. In 17 11 



Anne. 



353 



the Tories and Moderate Whigs had joined in passing the 
Occasional Conformity Act, aimed at those Dissenters who 
qualified for municipal offices in accordance with the Corpora- 
tion Act (1661) by conforming to the Church of England. 
To win over the clergy, Bolingbroke promoted the Schism Act 
of 17 14, which forbade any Dissenter to act as schoolmaster or 
tutor. This was too much for Oxford, who had been brought 
up as a Dissenter, and Bolingbroke, through Mrs. Masham, 
whom he had detached from his rival's side, worked on Anne's 
High Church sympathies. After a violent altercation in her 
presence between Oxford and Bolingbroke, Anne dismissed 
the former from the treasurership. 

Bolingbroke was now willing to proceed to revolutionary 
measures, but on July 30, 17 14, three days after Oxford's 
dismissal, the queen had a fit of apoplexy, and the crisis 
thus came earlier than the Jacobite section of the Tories 
had anticipated. When the Cabinet met, the Whig Dukes 
of Argyle and Somerset insisted on their right as Privy 
Councillors to attend it. The Cabinet was in theory only 
an informal gathering of important members of the Privy 
Council, and apart from the latter it had no legal existence. 
Bolingbroke was therefore unable to resist the admission of 
the Whig dukes, and it was proposed that the queen should 
be asked to appoint the Duke of Shrewsbury, a Tory, who was 
in favour of the Hanoverian succession, to the office of lord 
treasurer. The dying queen yielded to the wishes of the 
councillors, and before her death, two days later, measures had 
been taken which secured the peaceful accession of George I. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Capture of Gibraltar I7<>4- 

Battle of Blenheim i7°4- 

Battle of Ramillies J 7o6. 

Union with Scotland *7°7» 

Battle of Oudenarde I 7°8. 

Battle of Malplaquet I 7°9- 

Dismissal of the Whigs I7™- 

Treaty of Utrecht *7i3- 

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CHAPTER XXXVII. 

GEORGE I. (1714-1727). 

i. The Whig Supremacy. — The peaceful accession of 
George I. was a triumph for the Whigs and a reassertion~ 
of the principles of the Revolution of 1689. A Council of 
Regency, composed almost entirely of Whigs, ruled the 
country during the six weeks which elapsed before the 
arrival of George from Hanover. The king at once gave 
office to the Whigs, to whose support be owed his throne. 
Lord Townshend became head of the Ministry, with Halifax, 
Covvper, Stanhope, and Sir Robert Walpole as his chief sup- 
porters. The period of Whig ascendency, destined to last for 
forty-six years, thus began. George I., a dull and unattractive 
man of fifty-four, was chiefly concerned with the interests of 
his Hanoverian electorate. He was ignorant of English, and 
his limited mental capacity disqualified him from any under- 
standing of the intricacies of English politics. The possession 
of the English Crown enhanced his dignity on the Continent, 
and all he demanded of his ministers was that they should 
keep England quiet, and secure to him an ample revenue. 
He was hated by his son, George, Prince of Wales, and he had 
imprisoned his wife, Sophia Dorothea, on a charge of infidelity. 
The immorality of his own conduct was as flagrant as that of 
his Stuart predecessors. Personal loyalty for the sovereign 
could not live under such sordid and uninspiring conditions, 
and it practically disappeared as a factor in politics. The 
monarchy was in reality put into commission in favour of the 
Whigs, with the important result that supreme executive power 
was gradually transferred to that group of statesmen who 

355 



356 George I. 

represented the party with a majority in the Commons. The 
Cabinet system was thus founded. It was, however, long 
before the full meaning of the change was clearly understood. 

2. The Rebellion of 171 5.— The general election of 
1 7 15 returned a large Whig majority, but the contest was 
marked by serious rioting. As a consequence the Riot Act 
was passed, empowering the magistrates to disperse by force 
any riotous meeting of more than twelve persons, if it refused 
to retire when ordered to do so. When Parliament met, 
Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Ormond were ordered to be 
impeached. Oxford was imprisoned in the Tower, but the 
two others fled to the Continent and were attainted by 
Parliament. 

A widespread conspiracy was now set on foot by the 
Jacobites in England and Scotland. The Hanoverian suc- 
cession was unpopular in the west of England, and in Scotland 
dislike of the predominance of the Whigs under the Duke of 
Argyle, and hatred for the legislative union, brought together 
factions of very different views in favour of a Stuart restora- 
tion. Bolingbroke had relied on the support of Louis XIV., 
but the death of the French king in 1 7 1 5 was followed by the 
regency of Philip of Orleans, who for personal reasons wanted 
the friendship of the English Government, and therefore refused 
all help. Too late Bolingbroke tried to prevent a rising, for 
the Pretender James Edward had ordered the Earl of Mar 
to raise a rebellion in Scotland. Lord Derwentwater and 
Thomas Forster, the member for Northumberland, attempted 
a rising in the north of England, and Ormond landed in 
Devonshire. In the Highlands the clans opposed to the 
Campbells rapidly assembled, and the whole country north of 
the Tay was secured for the Pretender. A detachment was 
sent across the Border, and joined forces with Forster and 
Derwentwater. The insurgents then marched into Lancashire, 
where there were many Catholics, and occupied Preston. 
Forster, who was in command, proved hopelessly incompetent, 
and the rebels were easily surrounded by the royal troops and 
forced to capitulate. 



George I. 357 

Meanwhile Mar, in spite of the numerical superiority of 
his forces, had delayed at Perth, expecting the Pretender's 
arrival, but at last decided to attack Argyle, who defended the 
line of the Forth with only 3300 men. A battle was fought at 
Sheriffmuir, north of Stirling, and, although really indecisive, 
it was regarded by Mar as a defeat for the Jacobite cause. The 
Pretender, who arrived in December, found that the rebellion 
had been mismanaged in every direction, and, unfortunately for 
the Jacobite cause, he showed no capacity as a leader or 
organiser. With all their chivalrous loyalty, the Highland 
chieftains could not conceal their disappointment on finding 
their prince weak, irresolute, and melancholy. The rebellion 
rapidly collapsed, and in February, 17 16, the Pretender and 
Mar deserted their followers, and retired to France. The 
punishment inflicted on the rebels was not severe. About 
thirty, including Lord Derwentwater, were executed, but Forster 
and several other leaders escaped. 

Throughout the crisis the Government had shown great 
activity, and the failure of the English portion of the con- 
spiracy, especially the prevention of a rising in the west of 
England, was due to its prompt measures of repression. But 
the danger was not considered altogether passed, and as a 
general election, in accordance with the Triennial Act of 1694, 
would take place in 17 17, it was decided that in the disturbed 
state of the country the elections would endanger the public 
peace. Parliament therefore passed the Septennial Act (17 16), 
extending the duration of Parliament from three to seven 
years. The Act had the effect of making the House of 
Commons less dependent on the House of Lords, and of 
enabling ministers to pursue a more consistent line of action 
without the fear of frequent interruption through a general 
election. 

3. Stanhope's Foreign Policy (1717-1720). — The 
death of Louis XIV. had created a profound change in the 
relations of France to both England and Spain. Louis XV. 
was a delicate child of five, and his cousin, the Regent Philip of 
Orleans, had every prospect of succeeding to the throne, 



358 George I. 

provided that the Utrecht settlement, which excluded Philip V. 
of Spain from the succession, was upheld. The Spanish king, 
on the other hand, under the influence of his wife, Elizabeth 
Farnese, " the Termagant of Spain," and of his adviser, Cardinal 
Alberoni, aimed at the destruction of the Treaty of Utrecht. 
Under Alberoni's guidance a period of revival of Spanish in- 
fluence was inaugurated. The army and navy were reorganised, 
and commerce and industry were stimulated by reforms. As 
part of his policy of upsetting the Utrecht settlement, Alberoni 
planned the expulsion of Austrian influence from Italy. The 
effect of Alberoni's attitude was to drive the Regent Orleans to 
seek an English alliance, and by means of his agent, the Abbe 
Dubois, an arrangement was agreed upon in 17 16, by which 
England and France guaranteed the Treaty of Utrecht, and the 
regent undertook to expel the Pretender. The accession of 
Holland to the treaty in 17 17 turned the agreement into a 
Triple Alliance. 

The negotiations had been conducted by George I. and 
Stanhope during a visit to Hanover, and shortly after, the 
opposition of Townshend to the subordination of English 
interests to those of Hanover led to his dismissal from his 
secretaryship of state. In 1717 Walpole resigned, and took up 
an attitude of vigorous opposition to the new Ministry of 
Stanhope and Sunderland. Meanwhile, the danger from Spain 
continued to threaten the peace of Europe. Alberoni, checked 
by the Triple Alliance, planned an expedition against England 
in support of the Stuarts, and enlisted the aid of Charles XII. 
of Sweden, who had quarrelled with George I. over the latter's 
acquisition of the duchies of Bremen and Verden. In 17 17 
Spain declared war on Austria and conquered Sardinia; and 
in 1 7 18 a Spanish expedition seized Sicily. The emperor 
Charles VI., at once joined the Triple Alliance, and the four 
powers agreed to force Spain to withdraw. Admiral Byng was 
sent to the Mediterranean, and off Cape Passaro destroyed the 
Spanish fleet. This defeat and the death of Charles XII. 
shattered Alberoni's plans. The Spanish expedition to support 
the Pretender was dispersed by a storm in the Bay of Biscay, 



George I. 359 

and only two ships reached Scotland, and landed a small force, 
which was easily defeated. Philip of Spain, threatened on all 
sides, dismissed Alberoni, and accepted the terms offered by 
the Quadruple Alliance (1720). 

4. The Peerage Bill (1719). — Stanhope's rule was 
marked by a concession to Dissenters, the repeal of the Schism 
and Occasional Conformity Acts, but the attempt to repeal the 
Test and Corporation Acts was thwarted by the Church party. 
Stanhope, however, showed a less liberal spirit in proposing 
the Peerage Bill, by which no more than six peerages beyond 
the existing 178 were to be created. Extinct peerages might 
be replaced by new ones, and the elective peers of Scotland 
were to give way to twenty-five hereditary peers. The Bill 
would have turned the House of Lords into a narrow oligarchy, 
and have removed the only way out of a deadlock between the 
two Houses, by depriving the Government of the power to 
threaten a creation of peers sufficient to override the opposition 
of the Upper House. The Bill was thrown out by the Com- 
mons, mainly through the opposition of Walpole. In 1720 
Walpole rejoined the Ministry. 

5. The South Sea Bubble (1720).— The Treaty of 
Utrecht (17 13) had been followed by a great outburst of com- 
mercial activity and financial speculation. In 1711 the South 
Sea Company had been formed, and had taken over the 
National Debt of ^10,000,000 in exchange for interest secured 
on the customs, and a promise of a monopoly of the com- 
mercial advantages in South America to be obtained from 
Spain. The company was well managed, and acquired a great 
and flourishing business. As the National Debt consisted 
mainly of thirty millions of annuities, the South Sea Company 
offered to take over the Government's liability by persuading 
the annuitants to take shares in the company instead of the 
capitalised value of their annuities. The Government was to 
pay the company five per cent, interest instead of the seven 
per cent, paid to the holders of the stock. Further, for the 
advantage of being the chief creditor of the Government, the 
company offered seven millions. The plan was accepted by 



360 George I. 

the Government, and the annuitants agreed to the company's 
terms. The public rushed to subscribe for the new shares, and 
a wild burst of speculation followed. The ^"ioo shares of the 
company rose to ^"iooo, and this success led to the formation 
of a number of other companies, many of which were 
fraudulent impostures. A reaction set in as soon as the bubble 
companies burst, and a financial crisis followed which spread 
ruin far and wide. The shares of the South Sea Company fell 
to ^135. The Government was fiercely attacked in Parliament. 
Aislabie, chancellor of the exchequer, was expelled from the 
Commons for having accepted bribes from the company. 
Craggs, the postmaster-general, committed suicide, and Stan- 
hope died from the excitement caused by the attacks of his 
political opponents. 

6. Walpole's Ministry (1721-1727). — In 1721 Walpole 
became first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the 
exchequer, with Townshend and Carteret as secretaries of 
state. The rule of Walpole was signalised by financial 
measures. Already, before his accession to supreme power, 
he had restored public credit by remitting the seven millions 
promised by the South Sea Company, and by the confiscation 
of the property of the directors to pay the company's creditors. 
In 1722 he began a series of reforms of the export and import 
duties which fostered commerce, and ended by making the 
English tariff system the best in Europe. Throughout his 
career as minister, finance was Walpole's strong point, and 
as a consequence his foreign policy was steadily on the side of 
peace. In 1723 the Regent Orleans died, and the Duke of 
Bourbon became First Minister. A quarrel followed between 
France and Spain, and Philip V. allied himself with the emperor 
against France, and planned another attempt to restore the 
Stuarts. England, France, and Prussia, formed a counter 
alliance by the Treaty of Hanover, 1725. Some naval fighting 
took place without important results, and peace was restored 
by the Preliminaries of Paris (1727). 

At home Walpole's predominance was secured. The Whig 
leaders of Anne's reign, Godolphin, Marlborough, Stanhope, 



George I. 361 

Sunderland, were dead, and Walpole felt so strong that in 1723 
he allowed Bolingbroke to return to England. His great 
defect was jealousy of his own colleagues, and he gradually 
expelled from his Ministry every member whose abilities 
rivalled his own. In 1724 Carteret was dismissed from the 
secretaryship of state, and in 1725 Walpole quarrelled with 
Pulteney, the ablest debater in the Commons. Under Pul- 
teney's guidance, and backed by the literary gifts of Boling- 
broke, a formidable Opposition was formed. The sudden 
death of George I., in 1727, and the well-known hostility 
of the Prince of Wales to Walpole, led the enemies of the 
minister to expect a summons to power. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Jacobite Rebellion 1715. 

Septennial Act 1716. 

Battle of Cape Passaro ........ 1718. 

South Sea Bubble 1720. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

GEORGE II. (i 727-1 760). 
(1) Walpole and the Pelhams (1727-1756). 

1. Character of George II. — Walpole himself announced 
to George the death of his father, and received from the new 
king a curt order to wait upon the Speaker, Sir Spencer 
Compton, who was to be summoned to office. George II., 
however, was soon made to realise that Walpole was indis- 
pensable to the Hanoverian interest ; and the latter, by winning 
over the queen, Caroline of Anspach, secured for himself a 
renewal of his lease of power. 

The character of George II. was marked by a curious com- 
bination of sound qualities and petty eccentricities. He had 
shown some skill and much courage in the campaigns of the 
Spanish Succession, and in politics he was a shrewd and a 
loyal master. But he was pompous and fussy in his conduct, 
and the slave of a life of deadly routine, in which the observ- 
ance of petty details seemed to him to have a vast importance. 
His standard of morality was low, and he was meanly avari- 
cious. Fortunately for the country he allowed himself to be 
guided by his wife, for whose judgment he had a sincere 
admiration ; and it was through the queen that Walpole mainly 
exercised his influence. " If I have had the merit of giving 
any good advice to the king," he said to the queen, " all the 
merit of making him take it, madam, is entirely your own." 
Walpole and his royal mistress thoroughly understood both 
each other and the king, and the result was the maintenance 
of the policy of internal and external peace so necessary to 
the safety of the new dynasty. 

362 



George II. 363 

2. Walpole's Rule (1 727-1 742). —The years of Wal- 
pole's supremacy were in keeping with his favourite maxim, 
" Let sleeping dogs lie." Such reforms as he carried out were 
those which would not be likely to cause violent opposition. 
He encouraged the trade of the English colonies by removing 
some of the restrictions which prevented them from dealing 
directly with Europe, and his enlightened commercial policy 
doubled England's export trade. In 1733 he introduced an 
excise scheme which would have facilitated the collection of 
the import duties on wine and tobacco, and have discouraged 
smuggling. But his enemies roused a storm of opposition 
against Walpole on the ground that a scheme of arbitrary 
taxation was being prepared, and he wisely abandoned his 
plans, declaring that he would not be " the minister to enforce 
taxes at the expense of blood." 

In other directions Walpole worked on the same con- 
ciliatory and unostentatious lines. Since the accession of 
George I. the Established Church had been bridled by the 
appointment of Whig bishops, whose views were in direct 
opposition to the orthodox reaction, which had been dominant 
under Charles I. and Charles II. The lower clergy, as a rule, 
remained Tory in politics and loyal to the High Church 
doctrines. The result was, that in 17 17 a collision took place 
between the two Houses of Convocation, and the Government 
therefore silenced Convocation by refusing to allow it to trans- 
act business, a suspension of its powers which was maintained 
till 1850. Before long a decay of religious fervour, and a 
tendency to indifferentism, became the characteristic of the 
English Church. With it came, however, a diminution of 
religious antagonisms, and although Walpole refused to repeal 
the Test and Corporation Acts, he connived at their practical 
suspension by passing annual bills of indemnity to shield 
Dissenters who held offices without fulfilling the necessary 
conditions of the Corporation Act. 

The most serious blot on Walpole's career was the shame- 
less corruption which ,he practised and reduced to a system. 
A cynical disbelief in the purity of men's motives was a part 



364 George II. 

of his coarse nature. Although not himself corrupt, he never 
scrupled to buy off the opposition of an opponent. He did 
not create the low standard of political integrity, but he found 
that he could only keep himself in power by managing Parlia- 
ment, and gifts of places and pensions were his recognised 
methods of management. 

3. The Fall of Walpole. — In 1737 Walpole's power was 
shaken by the death of the queen. The Opposition in Parlia- 
ment grew stronger every year, and now found a powerful 
support in Frederick, Prince of Wales, whom Walpole had 
offended. It was skilfully led in Parliament by Pulteney, and 
was composed of Tories and discontented Whigs. 

In the end it was Walpole's peace policy which led to his 
downfall. The concession made by Spain in 17 13, by which 
one English ship a year might trade with the Spanish- American 
colonies, had been followed by a great extension of English 
trading in South America, mainly through an evasion of the 
limitation agreed on. English traders therefore came into 
collision with the Spanish officials, and wild stories of Spanish 
cruelty and oppression were repeated throughout the country. 
Jenkins, an English sailor, roused the bitterest hostility against 
Spain by asserting, probably without any foundation in fact, 
that the Spaniards had cut off one of his ears. Pulteney and 
the Opposition stirred the country to a war fever by accusing 
Walpole of a cowardly foreign policy, and the latter, to avoid 
resignation, had to declare war against Spain (1739). 

Walpole soon showed that he had no skill to direct a war 
policy. An expedition was sent to attack the Spanish colonies, 
and Admiral Vernon captured Porto Bello ; but the attack on 
Carthagena failed. At the general election of 1741 Walpole's 
majority was reduced to sixteen. Nearly all the skill and 
eloquence of the Commons was on the side of the " Patriots," 
as the members of the Opposition called themselves, but 
Walpole sustained with the utmost courage the attacks of 
those who in many cases had once been his friends. Early 
in 1742 he was defeated by a majority of sixteen, and resigned. 
The king, who had loyally supported his minister throughout 



George II. 365 

the crisis, accepted his resignation with deep concern. Walpole 
was raised to the peerage as Lord Orford, and was granted a 
pension of ^4000 a year. Although he continued to be a 
powerful influence in politics, his long political career was at 
an end, and he died in 1745 ; but before his death he had lived 
to see his old popularity revive and the Opposition, which had 
overthrown him, hopelessly discredited. 

4. The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). 
— The coalition of Walpole's enemies soon fell to pieces. 
Pulteney showed himself incompetent to formulate any policy, 
and lost all influence by accepting a peerage. The nominal 
head of the Ministry was Sir Spencer Compton, now Lord 
Wilmington, who had almost succeeded Walpole in 1727. 
Several of Walpole's colleagues, the Duke of Newcastle, and 
his younger brother Henry Pelham, together with Lord Hard- 
wicke, and Yonge, remained in office. The most important 
change was the appointment of Carteret as secretary for foreign 
affairs, a diplomatist of great ability, and a favourite of the 
king on account of his knowledge of German and his acquaint- 
ance with Continental politics. 

In 1740 the Emperor Charles VI., the former competitor 
for the Spanish throne, had died, leaving no son to succeed 
him. Of late years his great aim had been to secure the 
accession of his daughter, Maria Theresa, to the hereditary 
dominions of the House of Austria, and he had obtained from 
most of the European States, including England, a guarantee 
of the Pragmatic Sanction, as the official settlement of the 
Austrian succession was called. This secured to Maria 
Theresa Bohemia, Hungary, and the Milanese. On the 
emperor's death, however, the young King of Prussia, 
Frederick II. (the Great), seized the Duchy of Silesia and 
defeated the Austrians at Mollwitz, and a greedy scramble 
for the Austrian dominions followed. Charles Albert, the 
Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the Austrian inheritance, 
was elected emperor, and Maria Theresa saw herself 
attacked in Silesia, Bohemia, Belgium, and the Milanese, 
by a coalition comprising France, Spain, Prussia, Bavaria, 



366 George II. 

Saxony, and Sardinia. She could only rely on the loyalty 
of her Hungarian subjects, and on the fidelity of England to 
the Pragmatic Sanction. 

George II., as Elector of Hanover, was deeply concerned 
in the maintenance of the balance of power in Germany, 
while Carteret saw in French intervention in Germany the 
prospect of a struggle which would keep France occupied on 
the Continent, and leave her colonial dominions open to 
English attack. Both king and minister therefore were in 
favour of war nominally, at all events, on behalf of Maria 
Theresa. At the same time, in order not to expose Hanover 
to an attack from Prussia, great pressure was put on Maria 
Theresa to buy off Frederick II. by the cession of Silesia. 
This was arranged by the Treaty of Berlin (1742), and 
Frederick withdrew from the war. In June 1743 George II. 
at the head of an army, composed of English and Hanoverian 
troops, defeated the French under Marshal de Noailles at 
Dettingen. Shortly after Carteret's diplomacy succeeded in 
detaching the King of Sardinia from the anti-Austrian coali- 
tion, and by the Treaty of Worms, England, Austria, Holland, 
Saxony, and Sardinia, agreed to uphold the Pragmatic Sanction. 
Sardinia received from Austria a part of Lombardy. Bavaria 
was overrun by Austrian troops, and the Emperor Charles VII. 
was driven from his hereditary dominions. The French were 
expelled from Germany. 

The successes of Maria Theresa in 1743 caused Frederick 
II. to have misgivings as to her acquiescence in his retention 
of Silesia, and in 1744 he renewed the war with Austria and 
invaded Bohemia. The co-operation of the French, on which 
he relied, was not forthcoming, and after some preliminary 
successes he was driven out of Bohemia by the Austrian 
general, Traun, and forced to retire into Silesia with the loss 
of 40,000 men. In 1745 the Emperor Charles VII." died, and 
Maria Theresa's husband, Francis of Tuscany, was elected. 
Meanwhile Frederick had repelled an Austrian attack on 
Silesia, and shortly after invaded Saxony, and forced the 
Elector to submit. Having made the possession of Silesia 



George II. 367 

secure, he signed the Treaty of Dresden with Maria Theresa 
by which he recognised her husband as emperor and again 
withdrew from the war. 

Throughout 1744 the English, Dutch, and Austrian forces 
in Belgium, which formed what was called the Pragmatic Army, 
remained inactive. But in 1745 the French, under the great 
general, Marshal Saxe, laid siege to Tournay, and the allies 
under the Duke of Cumberland came to its relief. Saxe took 
up a strong position at Fontenoy, and here a desperate battle 
was fought in which the English and Hanoverians showed 
superb courage, but were outgeneralled and defeated. The 
English army was now called home by Jacobite dangers, and 
France was left free to conquer Belgium and Austria. 

5. The Rebellion of 1745. — The failure of England on 
the Continent in 1 744-1 745 was partly due to changes in the 
Ministry. In 1743 Wilmington had died, and Henry Pelham 
became prime minister. Public opinion was against Carteret's 
policy, and suspicious lest the interests of England, which were 
mainly involved in hostility to France, should be sacrificed to 
support a Hanoverian policy of resistance to the aggrandisement 
of Prussia. Carteret was also jealous of the ascendency of the 
Pelhams, and in 1744 he resigned. Henry Pelham then formed 
the "Broad Bottom Administration," his aim being to conciliate 
the different Whig factions by admitting their representatives to 
offices. Thus William Pitt, Henry Fox, and Lord Chesterfield, 
were won over, and room in the Ministry was found even for a 
few Tories. The effect of these changes was that opposition 
in Parliament almost ceased. 

The year 1745 was made memorable for England by the 
most dangerous attempt ever made to secure a Jacobite 
restoration. The old Pretender, James Edward, had proved 
a harmless rival, but his son, Charles Edward, the young 
Pretender, had all the qualities of courage and personal 
attractiveness which could appeal effectively on behalf of a 
fallen cause. In 1744 he was sent by his father to Paris, and 
an expedition was fitted out to attack England. The fleet was 
shattered by storms, and the French Government abandoned 



368 George II. 

the enterprise. Left to his own resources, Charles Edward 
determined to throw himself on the romantic loyalty of the 
Highlanders, and in July, 1745, he landed at Moidart, in 
Inverness-shire, with only seven companions, " the seven men 
of Moidart." The Highland chieftains were at first unwilling 
to move, but the personal charm of the young prince soon 
won adherents, and he was joined by the Camerons and 
Macdonalds. At Glen Finnan he was proclaimed regent for 
James Edward by the Marquis of Tullibardine. The English 
Government had only 3000 troops in Scotland, commanded by 
Sir John Cope, but it was decided that Cope should at once 
endeavour to prevent the insurgents entering the central 
Highlands. His plan, therefore, was to strengthen the 
garrisons at the three strategic centres, Inverness, Fort 
Augustus, and Fort William, which held the line of what is 
now the Caledonian Canal, and to advance into the High- 
lands to crush the rebellion before it could spread south. 
Cope, however, found the road to Fort Augustus barred by 
the enemy, and therefore turned aside towards Inverness. 
This left the road to Edinburgh unguarded, and Charles 
Edward at once marched south, entered Perthshire, and 
pushed on to Edinburgh. He routed two regiments of 
dragoons in a skirmish outside the capital, called the " Canter 
of Coltbrigg " from the cowardly flight of the English regulars, 
and entered Edinburgh. Meanwhile Cope had taken ship at 
Aberdeen, and landing his army at Dunbar advanced on the 
capital. A battle was fought at Prestonpans, which, like that 
of Killiecrankie, was decided by the fierce onrush of the 
Highlanders. The royal cavalry fled, and the infantry were 
either cut to pieces or captured. The fight was decided in 
less than ten minutes, and the fugitive cavalry with Cope fled 
to Berwick. 

Unfortunately for Charles, circumstances did not enable 
him to invade England at once, and during the delay of six 
weeks which followed his victory, the English Government 
was able to recall troops from the Netherlands. Setting out 
from Edinburgh, the prince eluded Marshal Wade, who was 



George II. 369 

posted at Newcastle with 10,000 men, and crossing the border 
near Carlisle, captured the town. Thence he pushed on to 
Preston and Manchester. On the way he had lost many of 
his followers by desertion, and as not more than two hundred 
recruits had been furnished by Jacobite Lancashire, he saw 
himself with only 4500 men threatened by Wade's army in the 
rear, while the Duke of Cumberland with 8000 troops was 
stationed in Staffordshire. With desperate courage Lord 
George Murray, who directed the prince's army, decided to 
continue the march south. Cumberland was quickly out- 
manoeuvred, and on December 4 the Jacobite army entered 
Derby. 

London was panic-stricken when the news arrived on 
" Black Friday." The king prepared to leave for Hanover, 
and it is said that the Duke of Newcastle was ready to pro- 
claim the Pretender. But the prince's followers were alarmed 
by the apathy of the English Jacobites, and Charles, yielding 
to the advice of Murray and the other leaders, ordered a 
retreat. The invaders fell back pursued by Cumberland, on 
whom they inflicted a check at Penrith, and crossed the border 
into Scotland on December 20. They then besieged Stirling, 
and at Falkirk they routed a force under General Hawley, sent 
to relieve the town (1746). A fortnight later Cumberland 
reached Edinburgh, determined to bring the enemy to a 
decisive battle. In April he was largely reinforced from 
England, and moving north from Perthshire towards Inverness, 
he found the rebels stationed at Culloden, south of that town. 
The Highlanders were ill-provisioned and worn out by the 
long and desperate campaign, but they fought with heroic 
courage against great odds. They broke through the first 
line of the English army, but were thrown into confusion by 
the fire of the second line, and were driven from the field. 
Charles, after a series of romantic adventures, took refuge in 
France. 

The pacification of Scotland was entrusted to Cumberland, 
who earned the well-deserved epithet of " The Butcher," by the 
atrocities which he inflicted on the vanquished rebels. The 

2 B 



370 George II. 

English Government determined to render another rebellion 
impossible by abolishing the jurisdictions of the chieftains over 
their clans, aiid by prohibiting the wearing of the Highland 
dress. Later on, under Pitt, Highland regiments were raised, 
and the splendid courage of the Highlanders was thus enlisted 
on behalf of the English army. 

6. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748).— In 1746, 
while the fate of Prince Charles was still unsettled, a political 
crisis had taken place in England. The Pelhams, finding 
themselves thwarted by the influence of Carteret, now Earl 
Granville, wished to give office to William Pitt, who had been 
the bitter opponent of the subordination of England to 
Hanoverian interests. Pitt was the grandson of a governor 
of Madras, and was now thirty-seven years of age. He had 
distinguished himself amongst the band of young men whom 
Walpole scoffed at as "the Boys," treating their appeals to 
higher motives as mere theatrical claptrap. George II. 
disliked him for his previous opposition to Carteret, and 
refused to allow him to be admitted to the Ministry, and 
the Pelhams therefore resigned. Granville, however, failed 
to form a Cabinet, and the Pelhams, on returning to power 
made Pitt paymaster of the forces. Pitt at once brought 
to public life a high standard of honour and of financial 
integrity, and his great reputation, together with his splendid 
powers as an orator, proved a source of strength to the feeble 
Pelhams. 

On the Continent the war waged by France and Spain 
against Austria had continued, in spite of the exhaustion of 
both sides. French armies overran Belgium and threatened 
Holland, while Spain struggled against Austria and Sardinia 
for the possession of the Milanese. In 1747 the English and 
Dutch under the Duke of Cumberland, were defeated at 
LaurTeld by Maishal Saxe. On the other hand, the English 
fleet under Anson destroyed the French fleet off' Cape Finisterre, 
in Spain. In North America the French possession, the island 
of Cape Breton, was captured, and Canada was threatened 
with invasion. 



George II. 371 

In 1747 Russia, under Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the 
Great, decided to intervene on behalf of Austria against France. 
Moreover, Philip V. of Spain had died, and his successor, 
Ferdinand VI., favoured peace with England. France, there- 
fore, worn out by her sacrifices in men and money, could sustain 
the struggle no longer. A congress therefore met at Aix-la- 
Chapelle in 1748, and preliminaries of peace were signed by 
England, France, and Holland. England, as in 17 12, made 
terms behind the backs of her allies, and these, whether they 
were satisfied or not, they had to accept. Austria and Sardinia 
both protested against English dictation, but were forced to 
sign the treaty. By the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, France and 
England agreed upon a mutual restitution of conquests. The 
French restored Belgium to Austria, and Savoy and Nice to 
Sardinia. The King of Sardinia was confirmed in the posses- 
sion of that part of Lombardy ceded to him by the Treaty of 
Worms in 1743, and Silesia was guaranteed to Frederick II. 
Don Philip, brother to Ferdinand VI. of Spain, received from 
Austria Parma and Piacenza. 

7. Internal Reforms. — The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle 
was only a breathing space in the long duel of the eighteenth 
century between England and France, but the eight years of 
peace which followed (17 48-1 7 5 5) were a period of quiet pros- 
perity for England, and two important changes were effected. 
(1) In 1750 Henry Pelham, who carried on the sound financial 
traditions of Walpole, diminished the strain of the National 
Debt, which was now ^78,000,000, by lowering the rate of 
interest from 4 to 3 per cent., thus saving ^500,000 annually. 
The new stock consolidated a number of debts into one fund, 
and .for this reason the debt in its new form was called 
"Consols." (2) In 1582 the Julian Calendar had been re- 
formed by Pope Gregory XIII. The original calculation 
made by Julius Caesar had been slightly erroneous, and a new 
calculation was therefore made by order of the Pope. This 
arrangement was adopted by nearly all countries, except 
England, Russia, and Sweden, which adhered to the "Old 
Style." In 1751 the accumulated error of nearly eighteen 



372 George II. 

centuries amounted to eleven days. Mainly through the 
influence of Lord Chesterfield the Gregorian Calendar was 
adopted by England in 1751, and the eleven days, September 
3rd to 13th, were omitted. The cry, " Give us back our eleven 
days," was raised by the ignorant against the Ministry, and was 
even used as a political war-cry at the elections. 

8. John Wesley (1729-1791). — The political apathy of 
the middle of the eighteenth century found its counterpart in 
the decay of religion amongst English Protestants. A school 
of sceptical writers had begun with Bolingbroke, and its in- 
fluence made itself felt in the disintegration of dogmatic beliefs 
amongst Churchmen and Dissenters. Many leading Churchmen 
and Presbyterians practically denied the doctrine of the Trinity, 
and even amongst the orthodox Protestants religion lost all 
fervour and vitality. The increasing wealth of the country had 
been accompanied by no increase in education, and while the 
Established Church sank into a state of torpor, and her clergy- 
neglected their duties, the populace of the towns was largely 
given over to the worst forms of vice and degradation. 

To meet the terrible evils of the time, a group of young 
Oxford men, led by John Wesley and George Whitfield, formed 
a society in 1729 to promote a higher religious life, and the 
regularity of their conduct, their zeal in attending the services 
of the Church, and their charitable efforts on behalf of the 
poor and of criminals, earned for them the nickname of 
" Methodists." In 1735 John Wesley and his brother Charles, 
the hymn writer, went as missionaries to Georgia, but meeting 
with little success there, returned in 1738. Whitfield had, 
meanwhile, adopted the practice of field preaching, and Wesley, 
who was most unwilling to appear to separate from the Estab- 
lished Church, felt himself obliged to follow Whitfield's example. 
In spite of the opposition of the clergy, and the fierce treat- 
ment which they received from hostile mobs, the Wesleyan 
preachers traversed the whole country calling on their hearers 
to lead a life of repentance. The movement was not without 
its drawbacks in the shape of outbursts of religious excitement 
and extravagance, but there can be no doubt that, on the whole, 



George II. 373 

the Wesleyan preachers did a great work for religion and 
rescued multitudes from practical heathenism. Almost to the 
last Wesley endeavoured to prevent a schism from the English 
Church, and just before his death (1791) declared himself a 
loyal Churchman, but the rulers of the Church profoundly dis- 
trusted the movement, and their hostility drove the Methodists 
to separate and build churches of their own. Wesley himself 
was at last compelled to ordain preachers, and thus took a step 
which made separation inevitable. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Fall of Walpole 1742. 

Battle of Dettingen 1743. 

Battle of Prestonpans 1745. 

Battle of Culloden . 1746. 

Peace of Aix la-Chapelle . 1748. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

GEORGE II. (i 727-1 760). 

(2) The Creation of the Colonial Empire (1755-1760). 

1. The English in America (1583-1756). — Under Elizabeth 
attempts had been made to colonise North America. In 1583 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert settled some colonists in Newfoundland, 
but he was drowned on the voyage back to England, and the 
colony died out. Sir Walter Raleigh, Gilbert's half-brother, in 
1585 founded the colony of Virginia, but successive bands of 
colonists failed to establish themselves, and *it was not till the 
foundation of the Virginia Company, in 1607, that the colony 
was permanently settled. The religious troubles of England, 
under James I. and Charles I., caused a number of emigrants 
to leave their native land. In 1620 the Mayflower brought a 
company of Independents, who landed near Cape Cod and 
founded the settlement of New Plymouth. Further bands of 
Puritans settled on the east coast of America, and the result- 
was the formation of the New England colonies, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The 
colonies were founded on the basis of a strict adhesion to 
Puritanism, and toleration was as foreign to the ideas of the 
colonists as it was to the Laudian system of conformity from 
which they had escaped. In 1632 Maryland was founded by 
a band of Catholic recusants, sent out by Cecil Calvert, the 
second Lord Baltimore, and the Catholics joined with their 
Protestant fellow-colonists in proclaiming toleration for religious 
beliefs. In 1 664 the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam became 
the English colony of New York, and in 1681 the Quaker 
colony of Pennsylvania was founded. The number of colonies 

374 



George II. 375 

continued to increase, and by the middle of the eighteenth 
century there were thirteen colonial states, independent of one 
another, and only bound together by their bond of allegiance 
to England and by the ties of race and language. The 
colonists were ruled by a governor, a council, and a legislative 
body. The governor was appointed from England and 
nominated his council, and the legislature was elected by the 
colonists. Except in the case of Connecticut and Rhode 
Island, the Crown could veto colonial acts, and litigants could 
appeal from decisions of the colonial law courts to the English 
Privy Council. The internal boundary of the colonies to the 
west was the Alleghany Mountains, and to the north lay the 
Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. On the south the Spanish 
colony of Florida cut off access to the Gulf of Mexico, while 
west of the Alleghany Mountains and in Canada were a series 
of scattered French settlements. The population of the English 
colonies was about a million and a half, whereas the French 
colonists scarcely numbered a hundred thousand. 

At the Peace of Utrecht (17 13) England had acquired 
Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hudson's Bay and Straits, 
but there were constant boundary disputes, and as a con- 
sequence the French began to build a line of forts, which 
aimed at confining the English colonists to the district east of 
the Alleghanies, and thus exclude them from the valleys of the 
Ohio and Mississippi. The chain of fortified forts would also 
link together the French possessions in Canada and the French 
colony of Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi. The 
colonists, to prevent themselves from being thus cut off from 
expanding westwards, formed the Ohio Company, and in 
1754 Major George Washington, with 150 Virginian troops, 
advanced to attack the French Fort Duquesne, which com- 
manded the valley of the Ohio. After defeating a small 
detachment of the French, Washington had to fall back 
on Great Meadows, and here he was surrounded by the 
main body of the French, and was compelled to capitulate. 
The English Government, in 1755, sent reinforcements under 
General Braddock, a brave but incompetent commander, who 



yj& George II. 

was drawn into an ambush while leading an expedition 
against Fort Duquesne, and was killed. Hitherto these attacks 
had been carried on in spite of the fact that England and 
France were nominally at peace, but in 1756 England 
declared war against France, and the American quarrel 
became part of a world-wide struggle between Great Britain 
and France. 

2. The English in India (1612-1756). — The East India 
Company was founded by a charter from Elizabeth in 1 600, 
and its charter was renewed by James I. In 1613 the com- 
pany founded a " factory," or depot for its trading, at Surat, 
and obtained privileges from the Great Mogul, the head of the 
Mahommedan Empire in India. In spite of the opposition of 
the Portuguese and Dutch, the English company maintained 
its position, and in 1640 established itself at Fort St. George 
(Madras) and Fort St. David. In 1662 Catherine of Braganza 
brought Bombay to Charles II. as part of her dowry, and in 
1696 the company built Fort William (Calcutta), on the 
Hoogly River. In 1707 the Great Mogul Empire ended 
with the death of Aurungzebe, and the Nawabs, or local 
viceroys, became practically independent of the feeble suc- 
cessors of Aurungzebe, who ruled at Delhi. 

During the eighteenth century the fate of India depended 
on the result of the colonial rivalry of England and France, 
and at first it seemed that the French would be successful. 
Dumas, the governor of the French settlement of Pondicherry, 
enormously increased the prestige of his countrymen by his 
skilful intervention in Indian politics. He was succeeded by 
Dupleix, the greatest of French colonial rulers, and the first to 
look on India not as a mere market for trade, but as a great 
empire to be controlled by a European power. During the 
war of the Austrian Succession, Madras was captured by the 
French, but restored at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). 

In spite of the formal peace in Europe, England and 
France in India remained to all intents and purposes at war. 
In the disputed succession to the viceroyalty of the Deccan the 
French and English supported rival pretenders, and the same 



George II. yjj 

course was followed in the question of the lawful successor to 
the Carnatic. In both cases the French candidate was suc- 
cessful, and Dupleix appeared as the dominant authority in 
Southern India. To make the succession of Chunda Sahib, 
the French candidate for the Carnatic, perfectly secure, an 
army of French and Indian troops besieged the English 
candidate, Mahommed Ali, in Trichinopoly. An English 
force from Madras attempted to relieve the town, but was 
defeated (175 1). 

It was at this crisis, when English influence in southern 
India was threatened with extinction, that Robert Give came 
to the front. Clive was the son of a Shropshire gentleman, 
and on account of his unmanageable temper had been sent at 
the age of eighteen to India as a clerk in the service of the 
Company. His life at first seemed so unbearable that he 
attempted suicide, but the opening of the struggle with France 
gave him at last an outlet for his pent-up energies. He served 
in the siege of Pondicherry, and had already won a reputation 
for courage when he was sent with 500 men to save 
Trichinopoly by attacking Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic. 
The town was captured by a combination of daring and good 
fortune, and Clive at once entrenched himself in the citadel. 
For fifty days the heroic leader held out against an army of 
10,000 Indians, under Rajah Sahib, son of Chunda Sahib, and 
the final assault by the enemy was beaten off. Rajah Sahib 
retreated, and the success was followed by the defeat of the 
French at Trichinopoly. This established the authority of the 
English in the Carnatic. Clive then returned to England to 
recruit his health, and in 1754 his great rival Dupleix was 
recalled to France in disgrace. With him perished the 
prospects of French rule in India. 

3. The Beginning of the Seven Years' War.— In 
1756 England's colonial war with France was merged in the 
great European Seven Years' War. Since 1748 a profound 
change had taken place in the grouping of European powers. 
Maria Theresa had been bitterly offended by England's con- 
duct in the peace negotiations of 1748, and had never given up 



378 George II. 

hopes of regaining Silesia, which pressure from England had 
forced her to cede to Prussia. When, therefore, George II. 
appealed to Maria Theresa for aid against France, the help 
was refused. England therefore turned to Prussia, and 
Frederick II., in spite of his previous alliance with France, 
agreed to the Convention of Westminster, by which, if Germany 
was invaded by foreign troops, England and Prussia were to 
join in expelling them. By this treaty, and by the arrangement 
to hire troops from other German princes, George II. hoped to 
secure Hanover from French attack. 

In 1754 Henry Pelham died, and his elder brother, the 
Duke of Newcastle, became prime minister. As the duke 
was unwilling to nominate either William Pitt or Henry 
Fox for the leadership of the Commons, he appointed a non- 
entity, Sir Thomas Robinson. Pitt and Fox, although in the 
Ministry, combined to make Robinson's position unbearable 
by overwhelming him with ridicule, and Newcastle had to 
purchase a peace with Fox by admitting him to the Cabinet. 
Pitt however refused to hear of subsidies to the German 
princes, and Newcastle therefore demanded his withdrawal 
from the Ministry (1755). 

The war with France opened disastrously. A French 
expedition landed in Minorca, and Admiral Byng, who was 
charged to relieve General Blakeney, the defender of the 
island, withdrew before a superior French fleet, and Minorca 
was lost. Byng was tried by a court martial, and shot 
(1757). Meanwhile, Newcastle had resigned at the end of 
1756, and the Duke of Devonshire became prime minister, 
with Pitt as first secretary of state. But the dislike of 
George II. for Pitt was so strong that before he was many 
months in office Pitt was suddenly dismissed by the king, 
and Devonshire at once resigned. After vainly trying various 
combinations from which Pitt was to be excluded, a compromise 
was arranged. Newcastle became nominally prime minister 
with Pitt as Secretary of State, and Fox as paymaster 
general. Pitt at once set about vigorous measures. With 
glowing confidence in his own powers he said, " I can save 



George II. 379 

the country, and I know that no one else can." Within a 
a few months he had justified his proud assertion by the 
splendid courage and energy which he diffused in every 
direction. 

4. The War in Europe. — For English interests on the 
Continent, Pitt's accession to power came none too soon. As 
Frederick II. said, England "had at last brought forth a man'' 
In 1756 a complete revolution had been effected in the 
political relations of Austria. Hitherto, since the days of 
Charles V., she had pursued a policy of hostility to France, 
but now, under the influence of Kaunitz, the great diplomatist 
who was to guide Austrian policy for forty years, Austria 
passed from her traditional friendship for England to friend- 
ship for France. France and Austria became allies, and formed 
the centre of a coalition against England and Prussia, which 
was soon joined by Russia, Saxony, and Sweden. Frederick, 
in 1756, demanded that Austria should disarm. On receiving 
a refusal, he poured his troops into Saxony, and in the follow- 
ing year invaded Bohemia. Although victorious in a great 
battle before Prague, he failed to capture the town, and he 
was defeated at Kolin. Meanwhile a French army had 
invaded Hanover, and defeated the Duke of Cumberland 
at Hastenbeck. By the Convention of Closter-Seven Cum- 
berland agreed to withdraw from Germany, and thus abandoned 
Hanover to the French (1757). 

Pitt at once repudiated the Convention signed by Cumber- 
land, and flinging aside his own opposition to intervention in 
Germany, determined, as he said, " to conquer America in 
Germany," that is, to support Prussia against France, because 
while the French army was engaged on the Continent the 
English fleet could conquer the French colonies in America 
and India. Cumberland was superseded by the able Ferdinand 
of Brunswick. Before the year (1757) was over Frederick 
had won two great victories at Rossbach and Leu then. In 
1758 Ferdinand drove the French out of Hanover and won 
a victory at Crefeld, while Frederick routed the Russians at 
Zorndorf. But Frederick was beaten by the Austrian s at 



380 George II. 

Hochkirch, and on the whole in 1758 neither side could claim 
the advantage on the Continent. 

In 1759 England gained a series of successes by land and 
sea. Quebec was captured by Wolfe, while Ferdinand of 
Brunswick won a great victory at Minden. A French squadron 
sailed from Toulon to join the fleets on the northern coast, 
but was met by Boscawen ofT Lagos and annihilated. Three 
months later Hawke destroyed the Brest fleet off Quiberon, 
and with the destruction of a third division of the French 
fleet which had escaped from Dunkirk to attack Ireland, the 
navy of France ceased to exist. The sea-power had passed 
into the hands of England, and the commerce and colonies 
of France lay at her mercy. 

5. The Conquest of Canada (1759-1760). — It was 
characteristic of Pitt that, whenever he could do so, he refused 
to recognise any qualification for command in the army and 
navy other than personal merit. Thus in America he recalled 
the incompetent general Lord Loudoun, and when the latter's 
successor, Abercrombie, was defeated by the French general, 
the Marquis of Montcalm, near Ticonderoga (1758), Pitt 
replaced him by a young officer, General Amherst, with James 
Wolfe as second in command. In 1759 a plan of campaign 
was drawn up for the conquest of Canada. Amherst was 
ordered to attack the French position at Ticonderoga, which 
commanded the road to Montreal, while Wolfe was to lead 
an expedition against Quebec, the capital of Canada. The 
troops under Wolfe were conveyed up the St. Lawrence, and 
were landed on the island of Orleans below Quebec. Having 
fortified his position there, he crossed to the mainland at a 
point east of Quebec, where Montcalm had established himself 
in an entrenched camp. An attempt to storm the French 
position failed. Wolfe therefore had recourse to the desperate 
stratagem of attacking Quebec on the western side, where 
precipitous cHffs falling to the St. Lawrence, were supposed 
to make any attack impossible. The English troops were 
conveyed by night up the St. Lawrence past Quebec, 
and scaled the Heights of Abraham. When day broke, 



George II. 381 

Montcalm saw the English drawn up ready for an advance 
on Quebec. He therefore hastily left his entrenched camp 
to attack the enemy. The French forces were defeated, but 
Wolfe was wounded and died in the hour of victory. Mont- 
calm was also mortally wounded, and died the following 
day. Five days later Quebec surrendered. The capture of 
Ticonderoga by Amherst completed the successes of the year. 

In 1760 the French, taking advantage of the fact that the 
English fleet had withdrawn from the St. Lawrence, made a 
gallant attempt to recover Quebec. A force under De Levis 
sailed down the St. Lawrence and landed above Quebec. 
The English commander Murray attacked the French on the 
Heights of Abraham, and was defeated. De Levis thereupon 
began the siege of the town, but the arrival of the English 
fleet forced him to raise the siege*. A combined attack was 
then made by Amherst and Murray on Montreal, and with the 
surrender of the town, the whole of Canada became an English 
possession. 

6. The British Supremacy in India (1 757-1 760). — 
In 1756 Clive returned to India as governor of Fort St. David. 
On reaching Madras he was met by the news that Surajah 
Dowlah, the Nawab of Bengal, had seized Fort William and 
Calcutta, and shut up 146 prisoners in a small dungeon in 
which 123, after appalling sufferings, had died of suffocation. 
Clive determined to avenge the tragedy of the " Black Hole," 
as it was called. After recapturing Calcutta, he advanced on 
the Nabob's capital, Moorshedabad, with 3000 men. On 
June 23, 1757, Clive encountered Surajah Dowlah's army of 
60,000 troops at Plassey, and in spite of the overwhelming 
numbers inflicted a crushing defeat on the Nabob. Meer 
Jaffir, who had betrayed his master, Surajah Dowlah, was 
made Nawab of Bengal, but the victory of Plassey had made 
the country practically an English possession. Surajah Dowlah 
was captured by his successor, and strangled in prison. 

While Clive was completing the conquest of Bengal, the 
French were making a great effort to regain their influence in 
the Carnatic. In 1758 Count Lally, after seizing Fort St. 



INDIA. 

English Miles 
too 200 300 400 500 600 




Walker & Cockerel) sr.. 



George II. 383 

David, laid siege to Madras, but was forced by the arrival 
of the English squadron to give up the attempt. In 1760 
Clive returned to England, but an able general, Colonel 
Eyre Coote, was sent to India, and in 1760 won a great 
victory over the French at Wandewash. In 1761 Pondicherry 
surrendered, and the scheme for a French empire in India, 
which Dupleix had conceived and had tried with such skill to 
realise, was finally shattered. 

7. The Death of George II. — Great Britain had never 
stood higher in the councils of Europe than in the closing 
years of the reign. An unparalleled series of triumphs in 
Europe, America, and India, shed lustre on her admirals and 
generals, and on the great statesman who guided her destinies. 
Pitt was absolute master of the House of Commons ; party 
questions had ceased to exist, and with the king and nation at 
his back, he controlled the vast resources of Great Britain. 
George II. is no heroic figure in history, but he was a loyal 
master to those who gained his confidence, and the great 
influence which his support gave to Pitt was realized when 
the old king's death was followed by a revolution in English 
policy at home and abroad. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D 

Beginning of the Seven Years' War . . . 1756, 

Battle of Plassey 1757 

Formation of the Newcastle- Pitt Ministry . 1757 

Battle of Minden 1759 

Capture of Quebec 1759 

Naval victories off Lagos and Quiberon Bay 1759. 

Battle of Wandewash ........ i7&>' 



CHAPTER XL. 

GEORGE III. (1760- 1 820). 

(1) The Overthrow of the Whigs and the Loss of the 
American Colonies (1760-1783). 

1. The Accession of George III. — The personal influence 
of the Crown had greatly diminished since 17 14, partly through 
the fact that the first two Hanoverian kings were foreigners in 
language and interests, and partly because by the conditions of 
their rule in England they were bound to the Whigs, the party 
whose views were opposed to the prerogative. Moreover, since 
the death of Anne, the sovereign had ceased to preside over 
the Cabinet, and the office of prime minister, as developed by 
Walpole and his successors, tended to lessen the sphere of the 
royal influence in directing affairs. But with the accession of 
George III., a young man of twenty-two, a great revival of the 
royal influence was destined to take place. George III. had 
been born and brought up in England, and, as he told his first 
Parliament, " he gloried in the name of Briton." He came 
to the throne determined to be a king in fact and not merely 
in name, and to establish his influence by breaking through 
the ring of great Whig families, who had monopolised power 
for forty-six years. The failure of the Jacobite cause in 1745 
had been too complete for any danger to arise from that 
quarter, and the Tories, weary of their exclusion from office, 
were willing to make their peace with the young Hanoverian 
king, and bring to his service the high views of the prerogative 
which they had always upheld. While, therefore, the Newcastle- 
Pitt Ministry remained in power, a party was formed, soon 

384 



George III. 385 

known as the " king's friends," which was largely Tory, and 
bound to support the king's views in Parliament, even, if 
necessary, against the Ministry. The party was directed 
by Lord Bute, a narrow-minded Scottish peer, whom George 
insisted on introducing into the Ministry as secretary of state. 

2. The Peace of Paris (1763). — In 1759 Frederick II. 
of Prussia had continued his struggle against desperate, odds 
with unflinching courage, but with almost unvaried ill-fortune. 
He was defeated by the Russians at Kunersdorf, and driven 
out of Saxony by the Austrians. At Maxen 12,000 Prussians 
were surrounded by the Austrians, and forced to capitulate. 
Had it not been for the successes of Ferdinand of Brunswick 
in western Germany against the French, and the great victory 
at Minden, Frederick must have succumbed to his enemies. 

As both sides were now weary of the war, Prussia and 
England suggested a congress of European powers to settle 
all disputes, and negotiations with France were opened by 
Pitt in 1 761. The terms demanded by England were, how- 
ever, exorbitant, and Pitt proved all the more unyielding 
because he suspected that France was secretly urging Spain 
to attack England. In this he was correct, for the Family 
Compact between the Bourbons in France and Spain had 
already been signed, and Spain had bound herself to declare 
war against England unless peace was made with France 
before 1762. Pitt therefore advocated an immediate declara- 
tion of war against Spain, and a descent on the Spanish 
colonies, but finding himself opposed by the other ministers, 
he resigned. He weakened his hold on popular affection by 
accepting a peerage for his wife and a pension of .£3000 a 
year, gifts from the Crown, which ardent admirers of Pitt 
could not reconcile with the well-known disinterestedness 
of the " great commoner." The Duke of Newcastle remained 
nominally prime minister, but the direction of affairs was in 
reality assumed by Bute. 

The justification of Pitt's policy was soon furnished by the 
conduct of Spain, and even Bute was compelled to demand 
explanations from the Spanish Government with reference to 

2 c 



386 George III. 

its relations with France. These were preremptorily refused, 
and England declared war. As Spanish troops attacked 
Portugal, England's ally, an English army was sent to Lisbon, 
and joined in expelling the Spaniards. At the same time the 
English fleets conquered Martinique from the French, and 
Havanah from the Spaniards (1762). In the East Indies, 
Manilla, the capital of the Philippines, was captured. Thus, 
although Pitt had resigned, the spirit he had inspired did not 
cease with his retirement. To Bute, however, the victories 
seemed so many obstacles to peace. He had now got rid of 
Newcastle, and as the undisputed head of the Government, he 
was able to carry out his policy of peace with France and 
Spain at the price of deserting Prussia. In 1763 the Peace 
of Paris was signed, by which England restored Guadaloupe 
and Martinique to France, and Havanah to Spain. France 
gave up Canada, and the island of Cape Breton, and 
all territories east of the Mississippi. Spain ceded Florida 
to England. The French West Indian islands, St. Vincent, 
Tobago, Grenada, and Dominique were ceded to England, 
and France restored Minorca. In India the French trading 
centres were given back, but these were not to be garrisoned. 
Both England and France agreed to withdraw their troops 
from Germany. 

Thus, for the third time in the eighteenth century, England 
deserted a continental alliance to which she was pledged, and 
retired from war after securing her own interests. Fortunately 
for Frederick II., the death of his great enemy, the Tsarina 
Elizabeth, led to the accession of his friend, Peter III., with 
whom he at once made peace. Sweden followed suit, and 
Austria alone was no match for Frederick. The Seven Years' 
War in Germany came to an end with the Peace of Huberts- 
burg, by which Austria tacitly agreed to share her supremacy 
in Germany with Prussia. 

3. The Quarrel with Wilkes (1763). — The Peace of 
Paris was bitterly attacked in Parliament, and a majority for 
the Government was only obtained by open bribery. A policy 
of proscription was therefore adopted against the great Whig 



George III. 387 

leaders. The Duke of Devonshire was struck off the Privy 
Council, and the Marquis of Rockingham and the Duke of New- 
castle were dismissed from their lord-lieutenancies. All parlia- 
mentary placemen who opposed the peace lost their offices. But 
in spite of his majority, Bute found himself so unpopular in the 
country that he resigned, and George Grenville, Pitt's brother- 
in-law, became prime minister (1763). Grenville was an able 
but narrow-minded lawyer, and the king soon found that his 
minister had no idea of being the pliant instrument of the royal 
policy. The new Ministry was, however, strengthened by the 
accession of the Duke of Bedford, and of the section of the 
Whigs who followed him, and thus contrived to last for two 
years. As the king could not have his own way, he com- 
pleted the organisation of his followers in the Commons, 
knowing that the " king's friends " could always turn the scale 
against the Ministry if he chose to order them to do so. 

In 1763 Grenville came into collision with John Wilkes, 
a man of great ability, but of a profligate character. Wilkes, 
who was member for Aylesbury, published an attack on the 
king's speech to Parliament in his paper the North Briton. 
A general warrant was issued against "authors, printers, and 
publishers" of No. 45 of the North Briton, and Wilkes was 
arrested. He pleaded his privilege as a member of Parliament, 
and was liberated by Chief Justice Pratt. He then brought an 
action against Wood, under-secretary of state, who had carried 
out the warrant, and obtained damages. Finally, with reference 
to these proceedings, Lord Mansfield declared it illegal to issue 
a general warrant. Meanwhile Parliament had expelled Wilkes 
on the ground that No. 45 was a " false, scandalous, and mali- 
tious libel," and that such libels were not covered by privilege 
of Parliament. Wilkes retired to Paris, where he posed as a 
martyr to the tyranny of king and Parliament. In his absence 
he was outlawed. 

4. The Taxation of America (1765)— A far more 
momentous struggle was entered upon by the Grenville 
Ministry in 1765 by the attempt to tax the American 
colonies. Shrewd observers, Montcalm amongst them, had 



388 George III. 

predicted that the conquest of Canada, by destroying the 
dependence of the colonists on England for protection 
against France, would be followed by the secession of the 
American colonies. Their predictions were soon verified. 
The main causes of quarrel were two in number. 

(i) In the eighteenth century, the colonies, in accordance 
with the policy known as the Mercantile System, were looked 
upon mainly as markets for English wares, or as sources of 
products which England wanted to sell to European countries, 
and the selfishness of this policy was naturally galling to the 
colonies whose economic development it hampered. In 
practice, however, the laws which prohibited the colonies from 
trading directly with other countries were evaded by a system 
of smuggling, which was carried out on a large scale with the 
connivance of the Custom-house officials. A large trade thus 
grew up with the French West Indies and the Spanish colonies 
in South America, which was, unlike ordinary smuggling, in the 
hands of responsible firms, and could claim at least a tacit 
sanction for its existence. Hitherto English statesmen had 
paid little attention to colonial administration, but to Grenville's 
legal mind the evasions of the trading laws were altogether 
repugnant. To put down smuggling, the Custom-house service 
in the colonies was reorganised with strict orders to suppress 
illicit trading, and English war-ships were stationed off the 
coasts to assist the revenue officers. In 1764 Grenville passed 
an act laying new duties on a number of articles imported into 
the colonies from the French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies, 
and in the preamble of the act the right of England to tax the 
colonies was clearly stated. 

(2) Grenville's second measure, the Stamp Act (1765), 
was closely connected with his commercial policy and on its 
behalf a good deal could be urged with justice. England had 
incurred an enormous debt in order to drive the French from 
Canada, and to enable the colonies to expand westwards to 
the Mississippi, and it seemed only fair that the colonies in 
future should bear some of the burden of maintaining the 
British troops permanently allotted to their defence. There 



George III. 389 

was, moreover, no central power in the colonies to raise a 
contribution from the colonies individually, and their mutual 
jealousies prevented them from co-operating. If, therefore, 
the difficulty was to be met, it must be solved by Parliament, 
and for this purpose Grenville in 1765 passed the Stamp Act 
levying a stamp duty on legal documents. It was expected to 
bring in ^100,000 annually, and this sum was to be spent in 
the colonies for their defence. The legal right of Parliament 
to levy such a tax could scarcely be denied, but as in the case 
of the struggle between Charles I. and Parliament, the question 
could not be argued merely on grounds of legality, and it was 
inevitable that Americans should confront the argument drawn 
from legality with the maxim that there should be no taxation 
without the consent of the tax-payers through their representa- 
tives. It was true that this maxim was only in theory observed 
in Great Britain, because Parliament was elected by a small 
minority (about one-tenth) of the tax-payers. But at any rate 
it was the Parliament of Great Britain legislating for the people 
with whom it was in touch, whereas to the American colonists 
taxation imposed by Parliament was the act of an assembly 
3000 miles away, profoundly ignorant of their interests, and 
beyond the range of their political influence. The agents of 
the colonies in vain warned Grenville against the dangers he 
was incurring, for the Stamp Act was passed by Parliament 
practically unopposed. Nine colonies at once protested 
against it, and a riot at Boston, in which the newly built Stamp 
Office was destroyed, showed that the colonists would not 
tamely submit. 

5. The Rockingham Ministry (1765-1766). — George 
III. from the first had chafed at the independent attitude of Gren- 
ville, but as Pitt refused office, he had been forced to put up 
with Grenville's continuance in power. In 1765, however, the 
king determined to fall back on another section of the Whigs, 
and having got rid of Grenville, he gave office to the Marquis of 
Rockingham and the Dukes of Newcastle and Grafton. General 
Conway, whom George had dismissed from the army for his 
opposition in Parliament, became Leader of the Commons. 



390 George III. 

The formation of the new Ministry was therefore a rebuff for 
the king's policy, and in defiance of his wishes Rockingham 
repealed the Stamp Act (1766). At the same time a Declara- 
tory Act affirmed the right of Parliament to legislate for the 
colonies " in all cases whatsoever." The repeal was supported 
by Pitt, who said, in answer to Grenville, " I rejoice that 
America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all 
the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, 
would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." 
The American trade, he pointed out, brought annually two 
millions profit to England, and it was folly to risk this for the 
proceeds of the Stamp Act. With the repeal of the obnoxious 
Act, the agitation in America at once subsided. Unfortunately, 
after a year in office, the Rockingham Ministry was dismissed, 
and before long the quarrel with the colonies was renewed. 

6. The Grafton Ministry (1 766-1 770). — The new 
Ministry was headed by the Duke of Grafton, but Pitt was the 
guiding spirit, and his great popularity in England and America 
opened a prospect of a permanent reconciliation between the 
mother country and her colonies. But Pitt accepted the title 
of Earl of Chatham and thereby lost popularity, and ill-health 
soon compelled him to withdraw from politics. His plans for 
an alliance with Russia and Prussia against France and Spain, 
for the assumption of the sovereignty of India, and for the 
better government of Ireland, were all dropped. Worse than 
this, Grafton, a feeble and indolent politician, allowed Charles 
Townshend, the chancellor of the exchequer, to raise again 
the whole question of the taxation of America by a paltry tax 
on tea, glass, and paper, to be applied for colonial purposes 
(1767). Townshend died shortly after, and was succeeded by 
the king's favourite, Lord North, who was an upholder of the 
policy of the Stamp Act. The Ministry was remodelled, and 
the Bedford Whigs joined it. The growing irritation in 
America only increased the anger in England, and the Ministry 
prepared to meet American insubordination by coercion. 

The Grafton Ministry, having repeated one of the great 
blunders of Grenville, proceeded to repeat the second by 



George III. 391 

reviving the contest with Wilkes. In 1768 Wilkes was elected 
for Middlesex, but was arrested and sentenced to two years' 
imprisonment. He published an attack on Lord Weymouth, 
secretary of war, and for so doing was expelled from the 
House. He was twice re-elected by the electors of Middlesex ; 
on each occasion the House refused to allow him to sit, and 
at last ordered his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, who had 
received 300 votes against 11 00 recorded for Wilkes, to take 
the seat. The decision raised vehement opposition both in 
Parliament and in the country. 

The Ministry was now hopelessly discredited. Chatham 
had definitely resigned, and Grafton thus lost the prestige of 
his tacit support. In 1769 the "Letters of Junius" began to 
appear in the Public Advertiser. Their authorship, although 
with strong presumption ascribed to Sir Philip Francis, has 
never been cleared up. They were, however, the work of 
some one who had access to information of first-rate impor- 
tance, and the skill and knowledge shown in the fierce attacks 
of Junius on leading statesmen produced a profound sensation. 
In 1770 Chatham, who had returned to politics, attacked the 
Government on its policy towards America and its treatment 
of Wilkes, and Grafton resigned. 

7. Events leading" to the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence (1770- 1 776). — The Opposition was too much divided 
to form a ministry, and George skilfully utilised its dissensions 
to raise Lord North to the position of prime minister. George 
had now freed himself from the ascendency of the " Revolution 
Families," and with the support of the Tories and of those 
Whigs whom he had won over, he now began a period of 
personal rule such as no sovereign had attempted since the 
Revolution. Lord North, an able statesman of the second 
rank, relying on the king and following the royal dictates, was 
able to maintain himself in power for twelve years. The 
immense patronage of the Crown, exercised in the gift of 
offices and pensions, was wielded by the king to secure a 
majority in the Commons. George watched the debates with 
the keenness of an old parliamentarian, and distributed his 



392 George III. 

favours and rebukes in accordance with the conduct of its 
members. " The power of the Crown," as Burke truly said in 
1770, "almost dead and rotten as Prerogative, has grown up 
anew, with much more strength, and far less odium, under the 
name of Influence." In America events were soon moving 
swiftly towards a catastrophe. North remitted all the new 
taxes except the nominal duty of threepence per pound on tea, 
which was retained as an assertion of the right of Parliament 
to tax the colonies. The tax on tea was in reality a concession 
to America, for it was to be levied in America instead of the 
tax of twelve pence per pound paid in England, before the tea 
was re-exported to the colonies. But in the angry state of public 
opinion in America every act of the home Government was 
bitterly resented. In 1773 three ships laden with tea sailed 
into Boston Harbour, and a party of men, disguised as Indians, 
and directed by responsible leaders of American opinion, 
boarded the ships, and threw the cargo into the sea. All 
attempt to punish the rioters was frustrated by the magistrates. 
To this act of defiance, the English Government and Par- 
liament replied by closing the port of Boston to commerce, 
and by suspending the constitution of Massachusetts (1774). 
Gage, the governor of Massachusetts, at once dissolved the 
colonial assembly, but its members met at Concord and set 
up a rival government. Virginia and the other colonies threw 
in their lot with Massachusetts, and a Congress met at Phila- 
delphia, which issued a Declaration of Rights, and denounced 
the encroachments of the Mother-country. In England the 
feeling against the colonies made war inevitable. In 1775 
Governor Gage decided to destroy the military stores collected 
by order of the assembly at Concord. The soldiers were fired 
on by some colonial militiamen at Lexington, and on their 
return, after destroying the stores, they were attacked and lost 
nearly 300 men. The first blow had thus been struck, and 
Congress, recognising the fact that war had begun, appointed 
George Washington commander-in-chief. Before he took 
command, another battle had been fought at Bunker Hill, 
outside Charleston, near Boston. The colonial troops had 



George III. 393 

occupied the rising ground commanding the town, and they 
were only driven from their entrenchments after fierce fighting, 
in which the English lost 800 men. As Gage failed to follow 
up his victory, Washington was given time to organise his 
troops and to blockade Boston. 

A final attempt at conciliation was made by Congress in 
1775, when a petition, known as the " Olive Branch Petition," 
was sent to the king. George III., however, acting with the 
support of the majority of the nation, refused to receive the 
petition, and Congress, in 1776, issued the Declaration of In- 
dependence. Only war could now settle the question at issue. 

8. The Campaign of 1776- 1777. — General Howe, who 
had succeeded Gage in 1775, removed his troops to Long 
Island, in the State of New York. The Americans were de- 
feated at the battle of Brooklyn, and fell back on Philadelphia. 
New York was occupied by the English troops. In 1777 
Howe defeated Washington at Brandywine Creek, conquered 
New Jersey, and occupied Philadelphia. Meanwhile, General 
Burgoyne had been ordered to lead an army from Canada 
down the valley of the Hudson River, and after forming a 
junction with General Clinton's army from New York, the 
combined force was to attack the New England States from the 
rear. The movement was a complete failure, and Burgoyne 
was surrounded at Saratoga and forced to capitulate. 

The news of the disaster at Saratoga raised hopes in France of 
vengeance on England for the humiliations of the Seven Years' 
War. In 1777 Lafayette with some French troops joined Wash- 
ington, and in 1778 France recognised the independence of the 
colonies. In 1778 war with France broke out, and Spain, 
true to the " Family Compact," declared war against England 
in 1779. In the following year Holland refused to allow the 
English claim to seize goods belonging to French owners which 
were carried by Dutch ships, and as England would not give 
way, war with Holland followed. England, with the larger 
part of her army in America, had now to face a European 
coalition without a single ally. The intervention of France and 
Spain had made the task of conquering America impossible. 




The Environs of 

BOSTON. 




Walker & Cockerel] sc. 



George III. 395 

9. The Death of Chatham (1778).— If it had been 
possible for Chatham to take office, as he had done in 1757, 
England might have been saved from a terrible crisis. 
Chatham was willing to grant all the colonists asked short of 
independence, and his great name and lifelong fidelity to the 
principles of free government would have secured a fair hearing 
from America for his proposals of reconciliation. But George 
III. was determined not to summon Chatham to power, and 
forced North to continue in office, although the minister knew 
that the king's policy was doomed to failure. Chatham, how- 
ever, did not live to see the humiliations of the next few years. 
On April 7, 1778, he was carried down to the House of Lords 
to oppose the proposal of the Duke of Richmond to recognise 
American Independence. He was able to make a speech in 
which, with something of his old eloquence, he protested against 
the dismemberment of the monarchy and submission to the 
House of Bourbon. But the effort was too much for him, and 
he was brought home in a dying condition. He died on 
May 11, and with him died the last hope of reconciliation with 
the colonies. North, too late, offered to negotiate on the 
basis of the widest concessions to America. The revolted 
colonists refused to treat, unless the English fleet and army 
were at once withdrawn. 

10. The Campaigns of 1 778-1 781. —In spite of French 
help the revolted colonists were still far from success. In 1778 
Clinton, who had succeeded Howe, retired from Philadelphia 
to New York, and an expedition was sent south to occupy 
Georgia, in which, as in other southern colonies, there were 
many loyalists. During 1779 the English forces remained on 
the defensive; but in 1780 Charleston, the capital of South 
Carolina, was captured, and Clinton set himself to conquer 
North Carolina and Virginia. In 1781, however, the tide of 
success turned, and the crowning disaster of the war in America 
was inflicted on British arms when Lord Cornwallis was sur- 
rounded at Yorktown, in Virginia, and surrendered with his 
whole army. The struggle to conquer America was now 
practically at an end. 



396 George III. 

At sea England still maintained much of her prestige. 
Rodney defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, and 
thus saved Gibraltar and Minorca (1780). But when the Dutch 
fleet was added to that of France and Spain, the naval resources 
of England were unequal to the strain. The French captured 
all the English West Indian Islands except Jamaica, Barbados, 
and Antigua, and in 1782 Minorca was taken by the Spaniards. 
The command of the sea seemed to have passed out of English 
hands, for English admirals were unable to challenge even the 
fleets of France. 

11. The Irish Volunteers (1 778-1 782). — The religious 
grievances of Ireland (p. 332) were not the only wrong inflicted 
on that country by her subjection to England, for in matters of 
industry and commerce her interests were sacrificed to the 
same selfish policy which led to the revolt of the American 
colonies. Navigation laws excluded her from trading directly 
with the English colonies, and with the Continent, and with the 
exception of the linen industry, her manufactures were crushed 
lest they should compete with English producers. The example 
of America, however, encouraged a spirit of resistance to the 
oppressive conduct of England. As all the available troops 
in Ireland had been sent to America, volunteer corps were 
raised all over the country. In 1779 the Irish Parliament, on 
the motion of Henry Grattan, the great Irish leader and orator, 
passed a resolution demanding freedom of trade, and North, 
realising the impossibility of resisting Irish demands when 
backed by 50,000 volunteers, granted to Ireland the right to 
trade with the colonies and the Continent. Grattan then 
demanded the repeal of Poyning's Act (1494), and of the Act 
of George I. (17 19), which declared the right of the English 
Parliament to make laws for Ireland. This demand was 
granted by North's successors in the Rockingham Ministry, and 
Irish legislative independence was secured (1782). It should 
be noted that these demands were made by an Irish Parliament, 
of which the members were exclusively Protestant. 

12. The Gordon Riots (1780). — In 1700 an Act had 
been passed which rendered a priest liable to imprisonment for 



George III. 397 

life for saying Mass, and gave ^100 to any informer who 
procured his conviction. The Act, like most of the penal acts 
against Catholics, was only spasmodically enforced, and the 
judges did their utmost to check prosecutions by discrediting 
the evidence of informers who tried to earn a living as " priest- 
catchers." In 1767 a priest, named Malony, was sentenced to 
perpetual imprisonment, but was released by the Government 
after being in prison two years, and banished. In 1778 Sir 
George Savile obtained the passing of a Catholic Relief Act 
which repealed the Act of 1700. The Bill was passed practi- 
cally unopposed, but in the country it roused wild opposition. 
The agitation began in Scotland, and riots broke out in 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, where the houses of Catholics were 
destroyed, and Protestants, who were known to sympathise 
with the Relief Act, were attacked. The Government therefore 
gave up the intention of passing a similar Act for Scotland. 
The excitement soon spread to England, and, under Lord 
George Gordon, a Protestant Association was formed to pro- 
cure the repeal of the Relief Act. An enormous mob marched 
to Westminster shouting " No Popery " and brutally insulted 
members of both Houses who had favoured the Act. Gordon, 
as a member of the Commons, presented the petition for 
repeal. The mob then proceeded to wreck Catholic chapels, 
and plunder the houses of Catholics. From Friday till the 
following Wednesday London was at the mercy of a mob of 
incendiary scoundrels. Savile's house was wrecked, Newgate 
prison was broken up and burnt, Lord Mansfield's house was 
destroyed. The magistrates seemed paralysed by fear, and the 
mob proceeded to plunder and rob almost unmolested. The 
king, however, declared that if other magistrates were afraid to 
do their duty, he would lead the soldiers himself against the 
mob. The result was an order to the soldiers to fire on the 
rioters if they refused to disperse, and the riot was put down 
after 500 had been killed or wounded. Lord George Gordon 
was tried for treason, but acquitted, as he had not instigated 
the outrages or taken part in them. 

13. The Peace of Versailles (1783;. — Throughout the 



398 George III. 

later years of Lord North's Ministry the opposition of the 
Whigs had been incessant. The Rockingham Whigs, led by 
Burke, demanded Economic Reform, that is the destruction of 
the corrupt influence of the Crown, exercised by gifts of 
pensions and places, while the Chatham Whigs, led by Lord 
Shelburne, were in favour of Parliamentary Reform. In 1780 
Dunning carried a motion that " the power of the Crown has 
increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished." George 
III. still refused to give up Lord North. The news of the 
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown (1781) proved, however, 
the death-blow of the Ministry. North resigned, and Rocking- 
ham for the second time became prime minister (1782). 

The Whig Ministry at once stopped operations in America, 
and negotiations were begun for a peace. For this the 
Americans, whose resources were almost exhausted, were as 
eager as the Whig ministers. The war with France, Spain, 
and Holland, still continued, and ended with the revival of 
England's naval glory. Rodney, in April 1782, defeated the 
French fleet off St. Lucia, and in the following autumn Lord 
Howe succeeded in relieving Gibraltar, which had been be- 
sieged by the French and Spaniards, by land and by sea, since 
1779. These successes caused the allies to listen to reason- 
able terms of peace, and, in 1783, the Peace of Versailles was 
signed. England recognised the independence of the United 
States, and ceded Minorca and Florida to Spain, and Tobago 
and Senegal to France, but received back the other possessions 
she had lost. 

14. The Struggle between the King and the Whigs 
( I 783-i784-)-~R° c kingham had died before peace was 
signed; but his Ministry had lasted long enough to strike 
several blows at the corrupt influence of the Crown by passing 
the Civil List Act (1782), abolishing a number of sinecure 
offices, and other acts forbidding Government contractors to 
sit in the Commons, and disfranchising revenue officers. 
The long contest with Wilkes was also brought to a conclusion. 
Wilkes had been elected in 1774, and had taken his seat 
unopposed. In 1782 the proceedings against him were 



George III. 399 

expunged from the journals of the House, " as subversive of 
the rights of the whole body of electors." 

Rockingham was succeeded as prime minister by Lord 
Shelburne, whereupon Burke and Charles James Fox, son of 
Henry Fox, Chatham's rival, at once resigned and went into 
opposition. Shelburne appointed William Pitt, Chatham's 
second son, to be chancellor of the exchequer. When 
Parliament met, a coalition was formed between North and 
Fox, and the Government was defeated. The king, after 
struggling in vain for thirty-seven days to form an alternative 
Ministry, was compelled to accept Fox and North as secre- 
taries of state in a coalition Ministry, headed by the Duke 
of Portland. Public opinion was outraged by this alliance 
between North, who had led the nation into the disastrous 
American War, and Fox, who had denounced North in the 
most furious language as guilty of " unexampled treachery and 
falsehood," and had declared, in 1778, that an alliance with 
North was "an idea too monstrous to be admitted for a 
moment." 

In 1783 Fox brought forward an India Bill, designed to 
transfer all political power from the Company to the Crown. 
Seven directors were to be appointed, in the first instance by 
Parliament, and after that by the Crown, to exercise political 
power in India. This would have given to the Coalition the 
control of the vast patronage of India, and have enabled it to 
strengthen its hold on power by its disposal of the spoils of 
office amongst its followers. The Bill passed the Commons in 
spite of the opposition of the king's party. When it came 
before tne Lords, George authorised Lord Temple in writing 
to say that he would regard as an enemy any peer who voted 
for the Bill. The result was the rejection of the Bill, and 
ministers were at once dismissed. 

Three days later it was announced that William Pitt, a 
young man of twenty-four, had accepted office as prime 
minister. He was supported by the few Chatham Whigs 
who survived and by the Tories, but his following was in a 
minority, and his appearance in the Commons was greeted 



4.00 George III. 

with shouts of derision. Fox and his party expected an easy 
victory and a speedy return to power. A furious contest 
followed between Pitt and the majority, which the youthful 
prime minister sustained almost single-handed. Votes of 
non-confidence were passed, but Pitt refused to resign, and 
George declined to dismiss his minister. Gradually, however, 
as the feeling in the country showed itself on the side of the 
king and Pitt, the hostile majority dwindled, and on the last 
resolution against the Government it fell to one. The coalition 
was manifestly beaten, and Parliament was dissolved. At 
the elections 160 of Fox's followers were defeated, and Pitt 
returned to Parliament with an enormous majority. 

The long struggle between the king and the Whigs had at 
last ended with the triumph of the king. The royal power had 
suffered an eclipse under George I. and George II., and after 
a period of revival under Lord North had been threatened by 
the Rockingham ministry and by the Portland Coalition. 
Henceforward for fifty years the revival of the influence of the 
Crown was secured, and it was believed that a minister who 
had the confidence of the king could always command a 
majority in Parliament. Fifty years of exclusion from power 
had to pass before the Whigs were again called on to direct 
the affairs of the nation. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Resignation of Pitt 1761. 

Peace of Paris 1763. 

The Stamp Act 1765. 

Lord North's Ministry 1770-1782. 

Declaration of Independence 1776. 

Battle of Brandy wine ........ 1777. 

The Surrender at Saratoga 1777, 

Death of Chatham 1778. 

The Surrender at York town 1781. 

Peace of Versailles . . . « I 783« 



CHAPTER XLI. 

GEORGE III. (1760- 1 820;. 

(2) William Pitt as a Peace Minister (1 784-1 793). 

1. Character of Pitt. — At the age of twenty-five Pitt was 
placed in a position of power such as no other statesman 
before or since has occupied. By his eloquence, skill, and 
confidence, he had met and overthrown a coalition supported 
by the splendid abilities of Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and Erskine, 
and for nearly eighteen years he was supreme in Parliament 
and in the country. He had learnt the arts of the orator from 
his father, and he could strike with ease almost any note in the 
scale of eloquence. " No one knew better how to turn and 
retort arguments, to seize in a moment on a weak point or an 
unguarded phrase, to evade issues which it was not convenient 
to press too closely, to conceal if necessary his sentiments and 
his intentions under a cloud of vague, brilliant, and imposing 
verbiage. Without either the fire, passion, imagination, or 
histrionic power of his father, he could entrance the House 
by his sustained and lofty declamation or invective, and he 
employed with terrible effect the weapon of cutting sarcasm 
and the tone of freezing contempt " (Lecky). Added to this 
he was unswerving in his devotion to public affairs, and his 
disregard of the solid rewards of office was so great that when 
he died he was overwhelmed in debt. He rewarded his 
followers by a lavish creation of peerages, but for him titles 
had no attraction, and he refused the king's offer of the Garter. 
Partly from a proud fastidiousness, and partly from weakness 

401 2 D 



4_o2 George III. 

of health, he held himself aloof from any attempt to win the 
boisterous popularity which a statesman of his powers could 
easily have achieved. To the king, as well as to his colleagues 
in office, and his opponents in Parliament, he showed a 
cold and inaccessible demeanour, which extorted respect but 
did not inspire affection. 

2. Pitt's Domestic Policy. — Pitt, from the first, en- 
deavoured to diffuse throughout the public service the high 
standard of efficiency and integrity which he followed himself. 
The system of direct bribery ceased entirely at his accession to 
power. The economical reforms for the purification of public 
life, which Rockingham and Burke had inaugurated, were 
completed. At the beginning of his administration, Pitt found 
the nation's resources seriously embarrassed. The National 
Debt had reached ^200,000,000, and the deficit on the year 
was three millions. The public credit was so low that Consols 
stood at 57. The public accounts were badly kept, and the 
revenue from customs was largely reduced by frauds and 
smuggling. Out of this chaos Pitt evolved order. Smuggling 
was put down by increased vigilance on the part of the 
customs-officers, and by reductions in the import duties, which 
made smuggling much less lucrative. A system of audit was 
set up, which struck at the corruption so widely prevalent in 
public offices. Pitt, moreover, had closely studied "The 
Wealth of Nations," the great work of Adam Smith, published 
in 1776, in which the doctrines of Free Trade were stated 
with a skill and a mastery of detail which made a profound 
impression on contemporaries. He endeavoured to promote 
free trade with Ireland, and his commercial treaty with 
France (1786) was a measure which anticipated the policy 
of Huskisson, Peel, and Gladstone. By these wise measures 
the deficit was turned into a surplus, and arrangements were 
made for the reduction of the debt. 

In other directions his views were equally enlightened, 
although much less was achieved. Some attempts at Parlia- 
mentary reform were made, but were dropped owing to the resist- 
ance of the king, and the general apathy on the subject ; and 



George III. 403 

for the same reasons, although Pitt strongly sympathised with 
Wilberforce's efforts to abolish the slave trade, he refused to 
stake the existence of his Ministry on the question of its 
abolition. As a consequence of his inaction the trade in 
slaves to the English colonies more than doubled during his 
administration. It was not till 1805, at the end of his life, 
that Pitt issued an Order in Council, checking the iniquitous 
traffic in human lives. 

3. India (1760-1773). — With the victory of Wandewash 
(1760), the future of India passed into the keeping of Great 
Britain. The Dutch, Portuguese, and French dominions, 
shrank to mere centres of trade, and English authority planted 
in Bengal, in the Carnatic, and at Bombay, could spread from 
those centres into the heart of the great Indian peninsula. 
The Government was thus brought face to face with a series of 
intricate problems arising from its relations to Indian rulers. 
Many of them were under its protection, and it became 
urgently necessary to enforce a higher standard of efficiency 
in ruling than was customary under oriental despotisms. Thus 
in 1760 it became imperative to remove Meer Jaffir, whom 
Clive had set up, and place Meer Kassim on the throne of 
Bengal. The new Nawab, however, soon rebelled against 
English authority, and by massacring 200 Europeans at Patna 
drew upon himself the vengeance of the Government. He fled 
to Sujah Dowlah, Nawab of Oude, and the two Nawabs con- 
certed measures against the English. In 1764 their army was 
routed by Major Munro at Buxar, and the victory made the 
English masters of north-eastern India. 

In 1765 Clive returned to India with almost absolute 
powers, in order to reform the administration of the company's 
affairs in Bengal. The Great Mogul, Shah Alam, was at this 
time a mere puppet ruler in the hands of Sujah Dowlah, but 
Clive found it convenient to recognise his authority, and an 
arrangement was made by which the Company was to administer 
the provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Behar, and pay subsidies 
to Shah Alam and the Nawab of Bengal. Clive also introduced 
reforms in the payment of the company's European servants, 



404 George III. 

and stopped the practice of private trading by which they had 
supplemented their pay. 

In 1767 Clive left India, and the evils he had tried to 
combat revived. The English rule in India was discredited 
by the quarrels amongst the directors at home, and by the 
corruption of many of the Company's servants. In 1770 
Bengal was devastated by a famine, and the Company was 
brought to the verge of ruin. Parliament therefore intervened, 
and in 1773 Lord North's " Regulating Act" was passed, which 
reorganised the government in India. A supreme court of 
justice was set up for the three Presidencies, and the Governor 
of Bengal was made Governor-General of India. Warren 
Hastings, who had become Governor of Bengal in 1772, was 
appointed by Parliament to be the first Governor-General. 
During the discussion of this scheme Clive's conduct had been 
censured, although at the same time his great services were 
formally acknowledged. Clive bitterly resented the treatment 
he received, and in 1774, at the age of forty-nine, he put an 
end to his life. 

4. Warren Hastings (1773- 1785). —North's Regulating 
Act transferred a large share of the political control of Indian 
affairs to the Crown, but it placed Hastings in the position of 
having to satisfy the Company's demands for large dividends, 
and at the same time carry on a policy of which the home 
Government approved. He was, moreover, severely hampered 
by the opposition in his Council, organised by Philip Francis. 
Some of his first acts were to remove all native officials, and 
to carry out reforms in the administration of justice and the col- 
lection of taxes, which made the British administration a model 
of sound government. These measures roused bitter opposition, 
and Francis, with two of the other new councillors appointed 
by Parliament in 1773, supported Nuncomar, the great Hindoo 
banker, in accusing Hastings of accepting a bribe to screen 
Reza Khan, the dismissed minister of finance. Hastings 
retorted by a charge of forgery against Nuncomar, and the 
latter was tried and condemned to death by Chief Justice 
Impey. The sentence was severe, but the charge against 



George III. 405 

Hastings and Impey of contriving a judicial murder has been 
disproved. 

On the north-western frontier of Bengal the policy of 
Hastings was able but unscrupulous. Pressed incessantly for 
money by the Company, he tried to raise it by indefensible 
means. He deprived Shah Alam of Allahabad and Cora, 
which Clive had ceded, and sold them to the Nawab of Oude, 
and for a large sum he allowed the Nawab to use British 
troops to crush an Afghan tribe, the Rohillas. He deposed 
Cheyte Singh, the Rajah of Benares, for refusing to pay tribute, 
and extorted a million from the Begums of Oude, the grand- 
mother and mother of the reigning Nawab (1782). But in the 
Bombay and Madras Presidencies Hastings achieved success 
without staining his reputation. The Bombay Government 
was threatened by the Mahratta War, caused by its attempt to 
set up a friendly ruler as Peishwa of Poona. The army of the 
Presidency was defeated, but Hastings sent an army across 
India from Bengal, which defeated the Mahrattas. In 1780 
the great stronghold, Gwalior, was captured. Meanwhile in 
Madras the rise of a Mahommedan adventurer, Hyder Ali, 
endangered British rule in the Carnatic. Hyder Ali had made 
himself master of Mysore, and, urged on by French agents, 
invaded the Carnatic, and ravaged the country as far as 
Madras. Hastings ordered the veteran general, Sir Eyre 
Coote, the victor of Wandewash, to attack Hyder Ali, and 
after a fierce encounter a great victory was won at Porto Novo 
(1781). In 1782 Hyder Ali died, and in the following year 
Hastings made peace with his successor, Tippoo Sultan. In 1785 
Hastings returned to England to meet his enemies at home. 

4. Pitt's Indian Policy. — In 1781 Parliament had 
ordered an inquiry into the affairs of India, and when the 
Portland Coalition came into power, Fox brought forward the 
India Bill, which wrecked the Government (1783). Pitt's 
India Bill (1784) established a Board of Control, which was to 
direct the political affairs of India, leaving all business matters 
wii& the Company. The Company was to appoint all officials, 
but the nomination to the highest posts required the assent of 



406 George III. 

the Crown. On his return to England Hastings was called 
upon to answer a series of charges, in which the hand of his 
enemy Francis could be traced. The Whigs, led by Fox and 
Burke, demanded his impeachment, and Pitt supported the 
charge. The great trial began in 1788, and was marked by 
splendid rhetoric on the part of Fox, Burke, and Sheridan ; 
but public interest evaporated when proceedings dragged on 
for six years, and in the end Hastings was acquitted. 

In 1790 Cornwallis, the new Governor-General, was drawn 
into a war with Tippoo Sultan of Mysore. An alliance was 
formed with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Mahratta 
chieftains, and in 1792 Cornwallis invaded Mysore and 
besieged the capital Seringapatam. Tippoo sued for peace, 
which was granted at the price of half of his dominions. 

5. The Industrial Revolution. — The last quarter of the 
eighteenth century was marked by profound changes of 
economic conditions, which made England the greatest manu- 
facturing and commercial power in the world. Hitherto the 
English had not been fertile in inventions, for all the great im- 
provements in agriculture and manufactures had been introduced 
by the arrival of foreign settlers, or by imitation of foreign 
methods. The Flemish weavers, under Edward III., had 
taught England the manufacture of cloth, and the Dutch, who 
fled from Alva in Elizabeth's reign, introduced the lighter 
fabrics, or " new draperies." In agriculture the use of turnips 
and other root crops was imported from Holland. But in the 
eighteenth century a great outburst of inventive power took place, 
which transformed England from an agricultural country with 
an export trade in woollen goods, hardware, and raw materials, 
into a country which supplied the markets of the world. In 
every industry improvements were effected by the introduction 
of machinery. Coal came into use instead of charcoal for 
smelting iron, and great improvements were made by James 
Watt in the machinery driven by steam. Arkwright's " water 
frame," Hargreave's "spinning jenny," and Crompton's "mule," 
were inventions which revolutionised the manufacture of cotton 
goods and cloth, while the foundations were laid of the great 



George III. 407 

iron industries of South Wales and other districts where coal 
and iron were found close together. Concurrently with those 
inventions, great agricultural changes were brought about, 
which largely increased the productive powers of the soil. The 
system of scattered strips, known as the " three field system," 
was swept away by the spread of enclosures, which created 
large holdings on which labour could be more economically 
employed. Waste lands were brought under cultivation, and 
better methods of farming were taught by the writings of 
Arthur Young. Roads were improved, and the great canal 
system was inaugurated by the Duke of Bridgwater's canal 
from the coal-fields of Worsley to Manchester. 

These rapid changes were not effected without serious 
suffering. The spread of machinery destroyed the old domestic 
industries of spinning and weaving, and the small tenant- 
farmer, to whom these were an important source of subsistence, 
was severely crippled. Population increased enormously during 
the last two decades of the century, and the old centres were 
deserted for new towns in the north, where the great industries 
were flourishing. In many instances the conditions of labour 
in the mills were bad, and terrible suffering was inflicted on 
the children who were sent to work in the factories. The 
problem of the treatment of the poor assumed an aspect more 
threatening than it had ever been before, and the startling 
contrast between vast wealth and degraded poverty roused 
bitter class hatred between employers and employed. But 
with all these drawbacks the great accession of wealth was of 
supreme importance. Without it England could never have 
subsidised Europe to carry on the struggle against France, and 
it was the wealth, that the Industrial Revolution created for 
England, which enabled her to carry on the prolonged struggle 
against the French Revolution and the ascendency of Napoleon. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Pitt's India Bill 1784. 

Impeachment of Warren Hastings . . . 1788-1795. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

GEORGE III. (1760-1820). 

(3) The War of the French Revolution (1793-1802). 

1. The French Revolution (1789). — In May, 1789, Louis 
XVI. summoned the States General, which had not met since 
1 614, and a new era in the world's history began. The changes 
which the Revolution was destined to bring about had been long 
prepared, and the action of the French king only furnished the 
occasion for the inevitable explosion. The French monarchy 
had reached its zenith under Louis XIV., under whose rule the 
centralised monarchy, which Richelieu and Mazarin had done 
so much to fashion, gathered all the threads of the national 
life into its hands. The nobles, once the turbulent enemies 
of the royal power, were stripped of their governments, and 
retaining their feudal privileges, sank into a court nobility. 
The Church was fettered by the " Gallican Liberties," which 
restricted her intercourse with the Papacy, and subjected her 
to the royal despotism. In every department, the Church, the 
army, the legal profession, the claims of noble birth, were 
carried to a pitch of absurdity. The peasant, ground down 
by the oppressions of the feudal system, found himself at every 
point confronted by the pretensions of an aristocracy which did 
little to justify its position of privilege. 

The eighteenth century was, above all, an age which prided 
itself on its enlightenment. A sceptical philosophy, of which 
Voltaire and the Encyclopedists were the exponents, exercised 
its corrosive influence on all beliefs which seemed to fail in 
answering at once the peremptory challenge of reason and 

408 



George III. 409 

common sense. The cultured classes throughout Europe 
abandoned the beliefs and ideals of their forefathers to follow 
the teaching of Voltaire and Rousseau, and left the practice of 
religion to the humbler orders of society. Moreover, the 
eighteenth century was a period in which rulers proclaimed 
it a duty to watch over the happiness of their peoples. 
Several of the sovereigns of Europe, the Emperor Joseph 
II., Catherine II. of Russia, and Frederick the Great, aimed 
at a philosophical despotism under which their subjects should 
enjoy every blessing and comfort. In France it became the 
fashion to descant on the sufferings of the people, and to 
blame the monarchy for its failures. Under Louis XVI. 
a policy of sweeping reforms was attempted by Turgot at the 
beginning of the reign, and, subsequently, financial improve- 
ments were projected by Necker. But these attempts only 
roused illusory hopes, for no minister was strong enough to 
resist the opposition of the Court party, whose interests were 
bound up with the maintenance of the old system of financial 
mismanagement and extravagance. 

The final cause of the Revolution was, however, the failure 
of the monarchy to achieve the task it had undertaken. Louis 
XV., incapable and vicious, allowed himself to be ruled by 
his favourites and mistresses, while Louis XVI., although 
personally upright and pious, had none of the qualities required 
for a ruler in troublous times. The whole government, the 
smallest details of provincial administration, ultimately centred 
in the king and his ministers, and the monarchy proved un- 
equal to the task. Moreover, the Crown, since the accession 
of Louis XIII., had never seriously attempted the reform of 
the finances, and the result was a chaos which, by 1786, had 
brought the nation to the verge of bankruptcy. At the last 
moment the Crown turned to the privileged classes to stave off 
disaster, and asked the nobles to give up their exemptions from 
taxation. With a strange blindness to the dangers ahead the 
« e privilegies" refused their help, and nobles and lawyers com- 
bined to resist the royal policy. 

To escape from the deadlock all parties turned to the States 



41 o George III. 

General. The Assembly met on May 5, 1789, and in a few 
weeks the Ancien Regime had been swept away. On July 14, 
the Bastille was stormed. On August 4 and 5 all feudal 
rights and privileges were abolished ; and on October 6 the 
king and queen were forcibly brought to Paris by the mob. 
The National Assembly, as it now called itself, set to work on 
a new constitution, by which the power of the Crown and 
Ministry was reduced to a minimum. The old provincial 
divisions were abolished, and eighty-three departments were 
created. Revolutionary changes in the organisation of the 
Church were also made. A number of archbishoprics and 
bishoprics were swept away, and by the " Constitution Civile " 
of the clergy the authority of the Pope was practically abolished. 
The clergy were required to take an oath to observe the new 
order of things. Louis XVI. looked helplessly on while France 
thus cut herself adrift from all her traditions. He had already 
been deserted by his brothers, the Comte de Provence and 
the Comte d'Artois, who, with a number of nobles, fled to 
Germany or Italy, and endeavoured to enlist the foreign 
Powers on their side. On June 20, 1791, the king and queen 
escaped from Paris, but were stopped at Varennes and brought 
back. 

2. Europe and the Revolution (1^89-1793). — The 
great Powers were at first too much absorbed in their own 
intrigues to realise the menacing character of the Revolution. 
Prussia, under Frederick William II., was scheming against 
Austria and Russia, while Prussia and Austria were eagerly 
intent on plans to carry out a second partition of Poland. 
The Emperor Leopold II. was the brother of Marie Antoinette, 
Queen of France, and felt some solicitude for the fate of his 
sister. But he was forced to order the emigres, who were 
organising hostilities against the Revolution, to keep quiet, and 
he strove to avoid any appearance of intervention in the affairs 
of France, which would only have led to the overthrow of the 
monarchy. As, however, the extreme section of the Revolu- 
tionists, the Girondists, came to the front, his attitude changed. 
In 1791, on the news of the flight to Varennes, he invited 



George III. 4 1 1 

Europe to intervene, and although this was withdrawn when 
Louis declared himself free, the threat deeply angered the 
extremists. Henceforward, the tension between Austria and 
France steadily increased, and the emperor, in consequence, 
drew near to Prussia. In 17 91 the two sovereigns issued the 
Declaration of Pilnitz, stating their willingness to restore order 
in France if supported by the other Powers. As it was certain 
that England would not agree to intervention, the declaration 
meant nothing, and it only served to rouse deep suspicion in 

France. 

A new Assembly was elected in 17 91, and in it the Girondist 
party, which wanted war with Austria, came to the front. 
Francis II., who succeeded his father, Leopold, in 1792, was 
ready to face a war with France. He therefore refused to 
accept the insulting ultimatum sent by the Girondists, and in 
April, 1792, France declared war. 

The war opened badly for France, for Austrian and 
Prussian troops crossed the frontiers, and the Parisian mob, 
mad with suspicion against the king, stormed the Tuileries 
and overthrew the new constitution. A National Convention 
met and proclaimed a republic, and while Dumouriez defeated 
the allies at Valmy, the Jacobins, a section of revolutionists, 
more advanced than the Girondists, carried out the "Sep- 
tember Massacres" in Paris against all persons suspected of 
disloyalty to the Republic. The armies of the Republic swept 
over the borders into Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and 
Savoy. Everywhere the French were welcomed by the inhabi- 
tants, and by order of the Convention the sovereignty of the 
people was everywhere proclaimed. Meanwhile, Louis XVI. 
was tried and condemned to death. In January, 1793, his 
execution took place. 

3. England and the Revolution (1789-1793)-— Public 
opinion in England was at first divided on the subject of 
the Revolution. On the one hand, a large party welcomed 
the Revolution, in the belief that France was about to copy the 
English Revolution of 1689, and establish a constitutional 
monarchy ; and this view was fostered by the fact that, in the 



412 George III. 

early days of the Revolution, statesmen like Mirabeau made 
frequent appeals to English precedents. Hence Fox declared 
that the taking of the Bastille was "the greatest event that 
ever happened in the world and how much the best." On 
the other hand, there were cool observers who saw in the 
advancing tide of anarchy in France a great opening for 
English interests. France had supported a revolution in 
America against England, and England could now retaliate 
in kind by taking advantage of the disorganisation of France 
in order to push her fortunes. This aspect of the Revolution 
was also understood in France, and " English gold " was 
erroneously believed to be at the bottom of the internal 
troubles of France. 

The attitude of Pitt was characteristically cautious. Intent 
on the financial reforms he had achieved, he, above all things 
wanted peace. In his great budget speech of 1792, he looked 
forward to fifteen years of quiet development for Great Britain, 
and he insisted that it was not for Englishmen to interfere in 
the internal affairs of France. But as the Revolution passed 
rapidly into a phase of violent mob-rule, English opinion 
underwent a change, and a spirit of hostility to all political 
changes developed. In 1790 Burke published his " Reflections 
on the French Revolution," which gave voice to the sympathies 
and fears of thousands of Englishmen. The English defenders 
of the French Revolution, moreover, had alarmed public opinion 
by a reckless parade of their sentiments, and they thus played 
a great part in stimulating the violent reaction, of which Burke 
became the leader. Burke saw that the doctrines of the Revo- 
lution, which proclaimed the equality of all men, would spread 
beyond the frontiers of France and become the "armed 
opinions," which at last Pitt himself denounced as dangerous 
to Europe. Under the influence of Burke's eloquent attack on 
the "Principles of 1789," a war party sprang into existence, 
and reforms in England came to a stop. The Whig party was 
ruined by the rupture between Fox and Burke, and in the end 
Burke led a large section of Whigs over to the side of Pitt 

Throughout 1791 and 1792 Pitt still clung to peace. He 



George III. 413 

had refused to indorse the Declaration of Pilnitz, and he had 
gone so far as to reduce the numbers of seamen in the navy. 
But the torrent of violence in France made peace impossible. 
In November, 1792, France offered her assistance to all 
nations that revolted against their Governments, and in 
December another decree of the Convention ordered that, in 
all territories occupied by French troops, republican institu- 
tions, on the French model, should be set up. The navigation 
of the river Scheldt, which, since 1648, had been reserved to 
the Dutch, was declared open to the world. The Dutch 
monopoly had been guaranteed by France and England in 
1785 and 1788, and the action of France was a violation of 
her treaty engagements, and also foreshadowed an attack on 
Holland. On the death of Louis, the French agent was dis- 
missed from England, and in February, 1793, France herself 
declared war on Great Britain and Holland. Hitherto she 
had fought against despotic governments, but in attacking 
Great Britain she was confronted by the resistance of a nation. 
If Great Britain was the last to enter the struggle, she never 
wavered, till, twice deserted by her allies, she was left to carry 
on the struggle single-handed. 

4. The War in 1793 and 1794.— The coalition against 
France in 1793 comprised Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, 
Spain, Holland, Sardinia, Portugal, and Naples. To meet 
this combination, which threatened France on every side, the 
Convention decreed a levy of 300,000 troops, and com- 
missioners were sent into the departments to hurry on the 
preparations. The decree was, however, the signal for a 
formidable revolt in La Vendee, where the people bitterly 
resented the attacks of the atheistical Republic on their 
religion. In Belgium also the confiscation of Church property, 
and the high-handed proceedings of the French, had alienated 
the people, and when the Austrians entered the country the 
Belgians revolted against France. Dumouriez, who had in- 
vaded Holland, was recalled to Belgium, but was defeated at 
Neerwinden, and disgusted by the conduct of the Convention, 
he went over to the enemy. In Germany the French were 



414 George III. 

driven across the Rhine, and the Spaniards defeated the French 
in the Pyrenees. - 

Meanwhile in Paris the Convention was torn by the struggle 
between the Girondists and the Jacobins, or " Mountain," led 
by Danton and Robespierre. The Jacobins had control of 
the revolutionary clubs and of the Commune of Paris, and on 
June 2, 1793, the mob surrounded the Tuileries and demanded 
the expulsion of the leading Girondists. Many escaped, and 
rebellions broke out at Lyons, Marseilles, and in Normandy. 
Toulon opened its port to the English fleet. An Anglo- 
Austrian army under the Duke of Coburg and Frederick 
Duke of York, captured Valenciennes and Conde, and 
threatened to march on Paris. 

The Jacobins met this terrible crisis with a courage which 
hesitated at nothing. A new constitution was decreed, and a 
Committee of Public Safety was set up, armed with despotic 
powers. The Reign of Terror was inaugurated in Paris, and 
the most illustrious names in France were found amongst its 
victims. Marie Antoinette, the Princess Elizabeth, the early 
friends of the Revolution, like Barnave and Bailly, together with 
the leaders of the Girondists, perished on the scaffold. While 
Robespierre and his colleagues organised the Terror in Paris, 
bloodthirsty scoundrels like Lebon and Carrier carried on a 
similar work of vengeance in the provinces. The Vendeans 
were crushed, and Toulon was recaptured mainly through the 
skill of a young officer, Napoleon Bonaparte. Before the 
English fleet retired from Toulon, it destroyed all the military 
stores and forty French ships of war which lay in the harbour. 

On the frontiers the French armies raised and directed by 
Carnot, the "organiser of victory," once more carried all 
before them. The Duke of York and Coburg failed to take 
advantage of their success, and York was defeated at Honde- 
schoote, near Dunkirk, while the Austrians suffered a reverse 
at Wattignies. On the Rhine the Prussians and Austrians 
were defeated by Hoche and Pichegru, and driven out of 
Alsace. In 1794 York was defeated at Tourcoing, and Belgium 
was re-conquered by the French. Early in 1795 Holland was 



George III. 4 ! 5 

invaded and turned into the Batavian Republic, under the 
protection of France. The Austrians were driven across the 
Rhine, and by the end of the year France occupied the left 
bank of the river from Basel to the sea. 

At sea the English fleet once more asserted its superiority. 
In 1793 the French naval ports of Brest and Toulon were 
strictly blockaded by the English fleet, and the blockade of 
the French coasts threatened to cut off France from all foreign 
supplies. In 1794 a large fleet, laden with American wheat, 
was expected, and a fleet under Villaret Joyeuse sailed from 
Brest to act as a convoy. Lord Howe, in command of the 
Channel fleet, encountered it off Ushant, and won the great 
naval victory of the " Glorious First of June." 

5. The Peace of Basel (1795).— The French victories in 
the second half of 1793 and the beginning of 1794, raised the 
hopes of the moderates in France, and a large section even 
amongst the Jacobins was in favour of clemency. The latter 
were led by Danton who realised, that if the Republic was to 
be safe two things were necessary. France, on the one hand, 
must abandon the outrageous policy of the decrees of November 
and December, 1792, and return to the normal methods of 
diplomacy, and, on the other hand, the sanguinary rule of the 
Commune of Paris, represented by Hebert and Chaumette, 
must come to an end. Between the Dantonists and He'bertists, 
stood Robespierre and a group of Terrorists, who were opposed 
equally to Danton and the Commune.' Robespierre deter- 
mined to destroy one faction by means of the other, and by a 
masterpiece of treacherous intrigue, he succeeded in securing 
the execution of the He'bertists, and three weeks later of 
Danton and his chief followers. From April to July, 1794, 
Robespierre was supreme, but on the 9th Thermidor (July 27) 
he was overthrown by a coalition of men of all parties who 
felt themselves threatened by his dictatorship. A reaction 
against the Reign of Terror at once began. The Commune 
was suppressed, the Revolutionary Tribunal was suspended, and 
the Jacobin Club was closed. 

The establishment of a more settled government in Paris, 



41 6 George III. 

and the successes of the French armies in every direction, 
caused the coalition against France to break up. In 1793 
Prussia and Russia had concluded a secret treaty for the 
Second Partition of Poland, and had proceeded to carry out 
the scheme of brigandage against their defenceless neighbour. 
Austria was indignant at her exclusion from a share in the 
spoils, and the failure of the coalition in the second half of 
1 793 and in 1 794 was largely due to the growing hostility between 
Austria and Prussia. Frederick William of Prussia, eager to 
secure his share in Poland, opened negotiations with France, 
and in 1795, by the Peace of Basel, Prussia withdrew from the 
war. France agreed to the neutrality of Germany north of 
the Main. Shortly after peace was concluded between France 
and Spain. The year closed with the establishment of a new 
form of government in France, the Directory. 

6. The Campaigns of 1796 and 1797. — The withdrawal 
of Prussia and Spain, left England, Austria, and Sardinia, the 
chief combatants against France, and Pitt concluded a fresh 
alliance with Austria. England had now to face the hostility 
of Holland, and when in 1796 Spain declared war, the Spanish 
and Dutch fleets were placed at the disposal of France. By 
this time England had captured practically all the French 
colonies in the West Indies, and in 1795 the Cape of Good 
Hope and Ceylon had been taken from the Dutch. Pitt there- 
fore opened negotiations on the basis of a restoration of 
conquests ; but the Directory refused to accept the English 
terms in the hope that, with the naval resources of Holland 
and Spain, France would be able to seize the command of the 
Channel, and invade England. 

The position of England in the year 1797 was most critical. 
Although the French invasion of south Germany was a failure, 
the successes of Napoleon Bonaparte in the Italian campaign 
of 1796 were overwhelming, and it was clear that Austria would 
soon be threatened by an attack from the south and the west, 
and would be forced to make terms. If, in addition to this, 
the French, Spanish, and Dutch fleets were able to form a 
junction in the Channel, a French invasion of England would 



George III. 417 

be possible. The junction was, however, frustrated by two 
victories. Sir John Jervis and Commodore Nelson, after an 
engagement off Cape St. Vincent, drove the Spanish fleet to 
take refuge in the harbour of Cadiz, and later in the year, 
Admiral Duncan defeated the Dutch fleet at Camperdown. 

The victory off Cape St. Vincent relieved somewhat the 
strain on England, but there were still dangers on every side. 
The country was drained of money by its subsidies to Austria, 
and foreign trade was at a standstill. The fear of invasion had 
shaken the credit system to its foundations, and early in 1797 
the reserve in the Bank of England fell to little over a million. 
The Government therefore intervened, and an act was passed 
suspending the payment of bank notes in cash. Meanwhile 
another crisis had arisen in the shape of serious mutinies 
amongst the fleets at Spithead and the Nore, and for a few 
weeks the situation was most threatening. The difficulties 
were solved partly by concessions on the part of the Govern- 
ment, which removed the serious grievances of the sailors, and 
partly by the good sense and patriotism of the men themselves. 
The victory at Camperdown was mainly won by the recently 
mutinous crews of the Spithead fleet. 

By the end of 1797 the danger of invasion had passed 
away, but the coalition with Austria was at an end. Napoleon's 
army in the spring crossed the Alps from Italy, and advanced 
to Leoben, eighty miles from Vienna. Here the preliminaries 
of peace were settled, and Austria laid down her arms. By the 
Treaty of Campo Formio, Austria ceded Belgium to France, 
and promised that at the approaching Congress of Rastadt, 
which was to arrange a peace with the other German princes, 
she would support the French claims to the left bank of the 
Rhine. Lombardy was formed into the Cisalpine Republic, 
and the Republic of Venice, after an existence of 1200 years, 
was forcibly extinguished by Napoleon, and handed over to 
Austria 

7. Napoleon in Egypt (1798-1799). — After his great 
successes against Austria, Napoleon decided that his personal 
ambitions would be best served if he left Europe for a time. 

2 E 



41 8 George III. 

He foresaw that the government of the Directory could not last, 
and he preferred to keep away from politics, so that he might 
be able to intervene decisively, and at the right moment appear 
as the heaven-sent genius whom France required to defend her 
against internal and external enemies. He therefore persuaded 
the Directory to give him a fleet and army to attack Egypt, 
and he hoped by conquering Egypt to threaten the English 
rule in India. 

The expedition sailed from Toulon in May, 1798, and 
Napoleon, after occupying the island of Malta, which belonged 
to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, landed at Alexandria in 
July. He defeated the Mamelukes at the Battle of the 
Pyramids, and overran Egypt. This success was counter- 
balanced by a great naval disaster. Nelson, who had been 
blockading Toulon, had been forced to retire to Sardinia to 
refit his ships after a storm, and in his absence Napoleon's 
expedition had sailed. He therefore gave chase ; but being 
uncertain as to Napoleon's destination, he cruised for two 
months in the Mediterranean in search of the enemy. At last, 
in August, the English fleet came upon the French fleet in 
Aboukir Bay, at the mouth of the Nile. The French ships 
were superior in size and armament, but Nelson's tactics 
neutralised their superiority. The enemy's fleet under Admiral 
Brueys was stationed along the shore of the bay, and Nelson 
therefore adopted the plan of enveloping one portion of the 
French line at a time, and thus destroying it in detail. The 
English fleet approached in single line, and as it reached the 
extreme left of the French line, six ships sailed into the shallow 
water between the French and the shore, while the rest 
attacked the French in front. The left wing of the enemy's 
fleet was thus placed between a double attack and was de- 
stroyed. The battle raged throughout the night, and out of 
thirteen French ships only two escaped; of the rest nine 
surrendered and two were burnt. 

The Battle of the Nile left Napoleon cut off from all com- 
munication with France, but in spite of the disaster, he decided 
to attack the Turkish power in Syria. In 1799 ne invaded the 



George III. 419 

country, captured Jaffa, and besieged Acre. The town was 
held by Turkish troops, assisted by British sailors under Sir 
Sidney Smith, who commanded two British ships stationed in 
the harbour. Repeated attempts to storm the town were frus- 
trated, and Napoleon broke up the siege and returned to 
Egypt. News then reached him which showed him that his 
presence was required in France, and he at once sailed for 
Europe, leaving Kleber in command of the troops (1799). 

8. The Second Coalition (1709-1801). — The Congress 
at Rastadt had only brought to light the antagonism between 
Prussia and Austria, and as Prussia and France drew nearer 
together, Austria listened to Pitt's overtures for a new coalition 
against France. The aggressions of the French Government 
roused a widespread belief that a permanent peace was im- 
possible. In 1798 the Pope, Pius VI., was expelled from 
Rome, and the Papal States were turned into a republic. 
Switzerland was invaded, and its constitution was remodelled 
as the Helvetic Republic. Pitt was thus able to take ad- 
vantage of the fears aroused by the high-handed policy of the 
Directory to draw together a formidable coalition, comprising 
Austria, Russia, Turkey, and Naples. The French were 
expelled from Italy by the Austro- Russian army under the 
great Russian general, Suvarov, while the Archduke Charles 
drove the French armies across the Rhine. A British expedi- 
tion captured the Dutch fleet in the Texel, and landed an 
army in Holland under the Duke of York. 

These disasters completed the discredit of the Directory, 
and Napoleon, on his return to France, was hailed as a 
deliverer. The Government was overthrown, and a new con- 
stitution was set up, with Napoleon as First Consul. Napoleon 
at once signalised his accession to supreme power by brilliant 
successes. Crossing the Alps, he reconquered Italy at one 
blow by a great victory over the Austrians at Marengo (1800), 
while Moreau defeated the Austrians in south Germany at 
Hohenlinden. The Russians had already withdrawn in 1799, 
after a defeat at Zurich, and the Tsar, Paul I., was now an 
enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon. The incompetent Duke of 



420 George III. 

York failed miserably in Holland, and the English army 
ignominiously retired. The second coalition was thus shat- 
tered, and in 1801 Austria signed the Peace of Lune'ville. 
England once again was left to continue the struggle against 
France. 

9. India and Egypt (1 799-1 801.)— The ostensible 
object of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt had been to reverse 
the disasters inflicted on France by the English in India. 
French agents were therefore sent to stir up hostility against 
England. Lord Mornington, who since 1798 had been 
Governor-General, soon found that an expedition was neces- 
sary against Mysore. Tippoo Sultan, instigated by the French, 
refused to receive a British mission, and war was declared. 
Seringapatam, the capital of Mysore, was besieged by General 
Harris, and Tippoo was killed (1799)- 

In Egypt the war was brought to a conclusion honourable 
to British arms. Unfortunately for the French, Kleber was 
assassinated by a Mahommedan fanatic, and was succeeded 
by the incompetent Menou. In 1801 Sir Ralph Abercromby 
landed in Egypt, and a battle was fought near Alexandria. 
The French were defeated, but Abercromby was killed. 
Shortly afterwards Cairo was captured, and Menou was com- 
pelled to surrender Alexandria and come to terms. It was 
agreed that the French should evacuate Egypt, and that their 
army should be conveyed to France by British ships. All the 
results of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition were now destroyed, 
for Malta had surrendered to the British in 1800. 

10. The Battle of Copenhagen (1 801.)— In 1800 the 
old question of the " right of search " brought Great Britain 
into collision with the Baltic Powers. Throughout the war 
Great Britain insisted on the right to search neutral vessels for 
contraband of war and for property of the enemy. Against this 
claim the northern Powers upheld the view that the neutral flag 
gives immunity from capture to all property of the enemy on a 
neutral ship except contraband of war. The Tsar Paul, partly 
from friendship for France, formed the " Armed Neutrality of 
the North," which was joined by Sweden and Denmark. In 



George III. 421 

1 80 1 a fleet under Sir William Hyde Parker and Nelson was 
sent into the Baltic, and at the Battle of Copenhagen the Danish 
fleet was compelled to surrender by Nelson's superior tactics. 
The English fleet then sailed to attack the Russians, but 
hostilities were stopped by the news of the assassination of 
the Tsar Paul. His successor, Alexander, made peace with 
England. 

11. The Suspension of the Constitution (1792- 
1802). In the early years of George III. the Press had begun 
to exercise a considerable influence on politics. The attacks 
of Wilkes in the North Briton forced Bute to retire, and the 
attempt of the Grenville Ministry to crush Wilkes proved 
unsuccessful. In 177 1, after a heated contest, Wilkes suc- 
ceded in establishing the right of the Press to publish reports 
of Parliamentary debates. Public opinion was thus brought 
to bear on Parliament itself, and a great source of political 
education was opened to the nation at large. Unfortunately 
on every aspect of constitutional liberty the reaction against 
the French Revolution told with most disastrous effects. The 
extravagant actions of a noisy and turbulent minority, which 
proclaimed its adhesion to the doctrines of the Jacobins, 
roused alarm, and Pitt was reluctantly compelled by the 
pressure of Burke, and by the fears of the influential classes in 
the country, to adopt a policy of repression. Trials for sedi- 
tious utterances became frequent, and the Press was jealously 
watched. In 1794 the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, 
and the suspension was subsequently prolonged, so that the 
Act remained inoperative for eight years. In 1795 the king 
was mobbed on his way to Parliament, and as a consequence 
the Treasonable Practices Act was passed, making the law of 
treason more stringent. This was followed by the Seditious 
Meetings Act, which severely restricted the right of public 
meeting and of free discussion. In 1799 the Corresponding 
Societies Act suppressed all societies of which the members 
were bound by an oath not required at law. Debating clubs 
and reading-rooms were to be licensed, and all printing presses 
were to be registered. 



422 George III. 

These coercive measures were strongly opposed by Fox 
and the small following of Whigs who remained faithful to the 
traditions of freedom. In 1798, as a protest against the policy 
of coercion, Fox and his friends withdrew from Parliament. 
All opposition proved fruitless, for the country was profoundly 
alarmed by the threats of French invasion, by the recent 
mutinies in the navy, and by the insurrection in Ireland. It 
was believed, not without justice, that at such a period of crisis 
the temporary suspension of the Constitution was not too high 
a price to pay for national safety. 

12. The Rebellion of 1798. — The Irish Parliament, 
which secured its legislative independence in 1782, was even 
less representative in character than the Parliament of Great 
Britain. Five-sixths of the people of Ireland were, as Catholics, 
excluded from the franchise, and the representation of even the 
Protestant minority was practically in the hands of a small circle 
of great landlords, twenty-five of whom controlled the election 
of one-third of the members of the Irish House of Commons. 
In Ireland the system of Parliamentary corruption was steadily 
employed by the Government to enforce its policy, and two- 
thirds of the Commons were attached to the English interest 
by pensions, bribes, and grants of titles and offices. Although 
the penal laws against Catholic worship had been partially 
repealed, it was not till 1792 that the Irish Catholics were 
given the parliamentary franchise, and in 1793 were admitted 
to serve on juries. 

In 1 791 the Society of United Irishmen was formed, to 
unite all Irishmen in an endeavour to secure Parliamentary 
reform. Three years later it was suppressed, and when it was 
reconstructed it became a society with distinctly treasonable aims. 
A network of committees was spread throughout the country, 
and the elaborate organisation centred in an executive direc- 
tory of five members in Dublin. Throughout 1796 and 1797 
a military organisation was created, and it was calculated that 
an armed force of 250^000 could be put into the field to 
support a French invasion. The society at first comprised 
both Catholics and Protestants, and its chief leaders were Lord 



George III. 423 

Edward Fitzgerald, Wolfe Tone, who was in close touch with 
the French, Arthur O'Connor, and Oliver Bond. 

In 1796 the hopes of the revolutionists were raised by the 
promise of French help, and in December a French fleet slipped 
out of Brest with 20,000 men on board, under the command of 
Hoche, the conqueror of La Vendee. The expedition sailed 
in three divisions, and the ship carrying Hoche was separated 
from the rest. Fifteen ships, however, reached Bantry Bay, but 
these were scattered by a storm, and the few that remained in 
the bay had only 4000 men on board. Grouchy, the second 
in command, decided to abandon the attempt, and the expedi- 
tion returned in a shattered condition to France. Hoche 
never came within sight of the Irish coast. Had the French 
landed they would have found the Government unprepared, 
and their arrival would have been the signal for a general 
rising. 

The failure of the promised help from France did not dis- 
courage the conspirators, and the Government, which had full 
information of the projected rising, decided on measures of 
repression. In 1 7 95 the Society of Orangemen had been founded 
in Ulster, in opposition to the association of Catholic peasants, 
known as the Defenders, and an attempt was made to drive the 
Catholics out of the province. In a short time a scarcely veiled 
warfare was in progress between Catholics and Protestants, 
and the Society of Orangemen by 1797 had organised a large 
armed force to resist the United Irishmen. The Government, 
in order to keep the peace, raised a force of yeomanry amongst 
the loyalists, and, although it was not intended to be recruited 
from Orangemen, it was inevitable that it should be joined 
mainly by recruits from the ranks of that society. In 1797 the 
whole country was placed under martial law, and in 1798 the 
Government ordered the arrest of the leaders of the United 
Irishmen. The disarming of the Catholic population was 
entrusted to the militia and yeomanry, and the order was 
carried out by the burning of farmhouses, and by flogging and 
torturing the peasants to make them reveal where arms had 
been concealed. The people were already ripe for rebellion, 



424 George III. 

but the savage conduct of their oppressors roused a feeling of 
fierce resentment, which eventually vented itself in acts of 
brutal revenge. 

The arrest of the leaders of the United Irishmen did not 
prevent the rebellion. The insurrection had been arranged to 
take place on May 23, 1798, and it broke out on that day. 
The most serious fighting took place in Wexford, under a 
priest named Murphy, but the rebels were defeated by General 
Lake at Vinegar Hill, and the rebellion collapsed. Two months 
later, a small French force under General Humbert landed at 
Killala. The invaders were successful at Castlebar, but were 
subsequently surrounded by a superior force, and compelled 
to surrender. 

The conduct of the rebellion had been disgraced by acts of 
inhuman barbarity, and a terrible revenge was now exacted by 
the triumphant soldiery. The leaders of the rebels, some of 
whom had joined on compulsion, or in order to keep the 
movement within humane limits, were tried by martial law and 
executed, and the executions were followed by the burning of 
houses and the destruction of Catholic chapels, and by the 
indiscriminate slaughter of unarmed men and even women. 
As a result of the struggle the state of the country was appall- 
ing. " Over great districts nearly every house was burnt, the 
poorer cabins by the troops as the homes of rebels, the 
slated houses by the rebels as the homes of Protestants or 
loyalist. Agriculture had ceased. Its implements were destroyed. 
The sheep and cattle had been plundered and slaughtered. The 
farmers were homeless, ruined, and often starving. Misgovern- 
ment and corruption, political agitation and political conspiracy 
had done their work, and a great part of Ireland was as 
miserable and desolate as any spot upon the globe." (Lecky.) 

13. The Union with Ireland (1800). — The rebellion of 
1798 made a legislative union inevitable. Lord Cornwallis, 
the new lord-lieutenant, was in favour of it, and the Ministry 
in England was anxious to put an end to a system which at 
any time might threaten the connection with England. Pitt 
was anxious for the Union as part of a wider scheme of con- 



George III. 425 

cessions to Irish Catholics, which he saw was impossible if 
the Irish Parliament continued. Catholic Emancipation, the 
admission of Catholics to the Irish Parliament, would have 
swamped the Protestant minority, and this would have entailed 
a civil war in Ireland ; but the danger would be removed if the 
Catholic representatives of Ireland were admitted to the Parlia- 
ment of Great Britain, in which they would be a small minority. 
With Catholic Emancipation Pitt would have combined measures 
for the endowment of the Catholic clergy, and for the removal 
of the standing grievance by which Irish Catholics were com- 
pelled to pay tithes to the Protestant clergy. These measures, 
together with a policy of internal free trade aimed at creating 
commercial prosperity, were included in the comprehensive 
scheme by which the legislative Union was to be made palatable 
to Irishmen. It was Pitt's misfortune, and still more the mis- 
fortune of Great Britain, that the Union alone was carried, and 
that the great measures of conciliation were either dropped 
altogether, or, like Catholic Emancipation, were ultimately 
wrung from the British Parliament by the threat of rebellion. 

The circumstances which accompanied the extinction of 
Irish legislative independence were disgracefully corrupt. 
Bribery had been for years the normal method of keeping the 
Irish Parliament subservient, and the concessions to Catholics 
in 1 7 92-1 7 93 were only passed by the corrupt influence 
of the Government. It was therefore characteristic of the 
whole system of government in Ireland that the Irish Parlia- 
ment should be ended by an exhibition of its venal and tainted 
qualities without a parallel in its history. The Union campaign 
began in 1799, when the Irish Parliament struck out from the 
address on the king's speech all reference to the plan of Union. 
In spite of this, Pitt, in the English Parliament, carried resolu- 
tions in favour of the scheme by large majorities. To create 
a majority in the Irish Parliament, Cornwallis and his chief 
secretary, Lord Castlereagh, were authorised by Pitt to use 
every means which the corrupt influence at their disposal 
permitted. Thirty-four peerages were promised to leading 
borough owners, and a million and a quarter was spent in 



426 George III. 

buying eighty boroughs, represented by 160 members, from 
their proprietors. The result was that a number of members 
representing these pocket boroughs resigned, in order not 
to oppose the wishes of their patrons, and the sixty-three 
seats which were vacated were rilled by supporters of the 
Union. Lastly, by means of its influence over the placemen 
in Parliament, the Government won over a large section of the 
Irish House of Commons by promises of pensions and offices. 
When, therefore, the Irish Parliament met in January, 1800, 
for the last time, the Government felt secure of success. Inside 
Parliament the system of corruption had done its work, and in 
the country all resistance had been made impossible by the 
large army which had been sent from England. In these 
circumstances the Union was passed. 

By the Act of Union of 1800 the Irish Parliament ceased 
to exist. In future, four Protestant bishops and twenty-eight 
representative peers, elected for life, were to join the House of 
Lords, and one hundred Irish members were to be elected to 
represent Ireland in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Ireland. The Churches of England and 
Ireland were "united into the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
to be called the United Church of England and Ireland," and 
it was stipulated that this should be " an essential and funda- 
mental part of the Union." 

14. The Fall of Pitt (1801). — Before the passing of the 
Act of Union the hopes of Irish Catholics had been raised, and 
their opposition to the Union largely neutralised, by the pros- 
pect of liberal concessions. Pitt, therefore, at once proceeded to 
consider the measures of justice to Catholics, to which, although 
not explicitly pledged, he was in honour bound by the action 
of Lord Cornwallis. But Pitt had not calculated on the oppo- 
sition of the king, nor had he realised that George III. was 
fomenting treachery amongst his colleagues. When, however, 
he brought- the question of Catholic Emancipation before the 
Cabinet, he found that his position had been undermined. 
The king was persuaded that to grant concessions to Catholics 
would be a violation of his coronation oath " to maintain the 




Walker & Cockerell SC. 



428 George III. 

Protestant religion as established by law ; " and the excitement 
of a quarrel with Pitt brought about a recurrence of the mental 
illness by which he had been prostrated in 1788. Pitt had no 
alternative but to resign, and with him went Dundas, Corn- 
wallis, and Castlereagh, who had contrived and carried through 
the Union. 

The resignation of Pitt proved fatal to the policy of 
reconciliation which he had planned. " Catholic Emancipa- 
tion waited for thirty, and Tithe Reform waited near forty 
embittered and envenomed years. The time for ecclesiastical 
stipends provided by the State passed away for ever. The 
bright promises of financial improvement that had been held 
out to Ireland faded away into bankruptcy. Seventy years 
afterwards, the Irish Church Establishment, which it had been 
one of the main objects of the treaty to preserve, suddenly 
toppled over and disappeared. With it went the keystone of 
the Union. And so it is Pitt's sinister destiny to be judged by 
the petty fragment of a large policy which he did not live to 
carry out : a policy, unhappy in execution and result, but which 
was, it may be fairly maintained, as generous and comprehensive 
in conception as it was patriotic in motive." 1 

14. The Peace of Amiens (1802).— The fall of Pitt 
came at a moment when the strain of the danger from France 
had, in a great measure, passed away. Pitt, in the words of 
Canning's poem, was " the pilot that weathered the storm," 
and if he left the ship of the State in the guidance of feebler 
hands, his services were still available in the country's hour of 
need. Addington, the new prime minister, was one of Pitt's 
oldest friends, and in the position of Speaker of the House 
had gained a reputation for wisdom by his oracular demeanour. 
But his talents were of the most slender description, and his 
vanicy was such that he did not realise that he had been called 
to occupy a position which he could never adequately fill. 
Canning fairly summed up the situation in the rhyme, " Pitt 
is to Addington as London is to Paddington." The Ministry 
was a fitting counterpart of its leader, but fortunately for the 
1 Lord Rosebery, " Pitt." 



George III. 429 

moment Pitt's influence was on the side of the respectable 
mediocrities of whom the new Cabinet was composed. 

The early days of Addington's Ministry were made illustrious 
by two successes, both of which were due to the policy of his 
great predecessor. Abercromby's expedition to Egypt and 
Nelson's victory at Copenhagen were the fruits of Pitt's fore- 
sight, and of these Addington reaped the benefit. Both Great 
Britain and France were now weary of the war. Napoleon 
wanted peace in order to consolidate his power at home. 
Although he had been successful on the Continent, the sea- 
power of England checked and thwarted him in the Mediter- 
ranean, in the Atlantic and the Channel, and in the Baltic. 
After protracted negotiations, the Peace of Amiens was signed 
(1802). By this it was agreed that the French should withdraw 
from Naples and the Papal States, and recognise the integrity 
of Portugal. Great Britain gave up all her conquests except 
Trinidad and Ceylon. The Cape of Good Hope was restored 
to the Dutch, and Egypt to Turkey. Malta was to be given 
back to the knights of St. John, under the guarantee of one of 
the great Powers. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Outbreak of War with France 1793. 

The " Glorious First of June" 1794. 

Partial Suspension of the Constitution . . 1794- 1802. 

Battles of Cape St. Vincent and Camperdown . 1797. 

Battle of the Nile 1708. 

Battle of Copenhagen 1801. 

Peace of Amiens 1802. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

GEORGE III. ( 1 760-1 820). 

(4) The War against Napoleon and the Settlement 
of Europe (1803-1820). 

1. Causes of the Renewal of the War (1802-1803).— 

The Treaty of Amiens was hailed with rapture in England, and 
for a time it was believed that a permanent peace had been 
arranged. But the actions of Napoleon soon showed that the 
peace was only a breathing space, and that after resisting the 
aggressions of Revolutionary France, Great Britain would have 
to face the dangers of a Napoleonic ascendency in Europe. 
Even while the negotiations for peace were in progress, 
Napoleon had continued his aggressions, and after the 
treaty had been signed, he pursued the same policy, con- 
temptuously disregarding the protests of Great Britain. The 
vassal state of Holland was forced to re-organise its constitu- 
tion as the Batavian Republic, Switzerland was occupied by 
French troops, and the Cisalpine Republic was turned into the 
Italian Republic, with Napoleon as its president. Piedmont 
and Elba were annexed to France, and shortly after Parma 
and Placentia shared the same fate. To shew the bitterness 
of his hostility, Napoleon ordered the dependent republics to 
close their ports to English goods. 

In the insulting attitude which Napoleon had taken up, he 
counted on the feebleness of the Addington Ministry ; but he 
soon found that Great Britain was not to be bullied with 
impunity. Englishmen especially resented his interference in 
the internal affairs of the country. Napoleon complained, not 

430 



George III. 431 

without justice, of the intrigues of the French royalists who had 
taken refuge in England, and also of their attacks on him 
published by the English Press. The Government, while 
anxious to conciliate Napoleon, declined to dismiss the 
French refugees or to do more than put into force the 
ordinary law of the land against offenders in the Press. 
Peltier, a French emigrant, was, however, prosecuted for 
libelling the First Consul, and was found guilty. At the 
same time, while making these complaints against the English 
Press, Napoleon allowed attacks on England to be published 
in the official Moniteur, and he also roused suspicion by 
sending agents to England and Ireland in order to gain 
information which might prove useful in case of an invasion. 

The Maltese question was the final cause of quarrel. In 
1803 an official report on the position of France in the east 
was published, in which the occupation of Egypt was discussed. 
England therefore clung more and more to Malta to safeguard 
her approach to Egypt. The Government refused to give up 
Malta to the knights of St. John, lest the island should fall into 
the hands of France. Napoleon angrily declared to the British 
ambassador, Lord Whitworth, that he would rather see England 
in possession of the Faubourg St. Antoine in Paris than of Malta, 
and he demanded that Great Britain should observe the Treaty 
of Amiens. The British Government replied by pointing out 
that by his treatment of Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, 
Napoleon had violated the conditions on which that treaty 
rested. An ultimatum was sent, demanding the retention of 
Malta for ten years and the withdrawal of French troops from 
Holland and Switzerland. As Napoleon declined to yield, 
Great Britain declared war (1803). 

The nation at once turned to Pitt as the only statesman 
who could guide her policy. In 1804 Addington resigned, 
and Pitt returned to power. A great volunteer movement 
had already been started, and in a few months 300,000 men 
were ready to serve in case of an invasion. The combined 
force of the regular army and militia was raised to 200,000 
men. Preparations for a naval war were hurried on with 



432 George III. 

feverish activity, and in a single year 166 ships were built 
and 600 were got ready. 

2. Character of the War. — In forcing Great Britain 
into war, Napoleon took up definitely the old Bourbon policy, 
pursued throughout the eighteenth century, of hostility to 
England. From this moment he concentrated all his energies 
on striking directly or indirectly at an enemy whom he regarded 
with the bitterest hatred. The long duel thus began, which 
ended on the field of Waterloo. Foiled in his attempts at 
invasion, and thwarted at every turn by the sea-power of Great 
Britain, Napoleon tried to crush his rival by closing every 
market in Europe to British products. To conquer Britain he 
had to conquer Europe, and although his marvellous military 
genius enabled him again and again to shatter the coalitions 
which were called into existence against him, and subsidised 
by the wealth of Great Britain, yet in the end the resources of 
France were strained beyond the limit of endurance. More- 
over the armies of the French Revolution had succeeded on the 
Continent because they were the armies of a nation struggling 
against the effete political system of eighteenth-century Europe. 
Napoleon failed to impose his ascendency on Europe, because 
in Spain, in Russia, and in Germany, he at last roused the same 
national spirit which had breathed a new life into France herself 
in 1789. In 1804 Napoleon had reached the summit of his 
ambition, and had crowned himself Emperor of the French. 
Like his great forerunner, Charlemagne, he parcelled out 
European thrones amongst his relations, and for eight years 
the frontiers of European States shifted at his bidding. But 
his failure to conquer Spain and Russia was followed by 
the resurrection of Germany as a nation, and in 18 13 an 
insurrection of nations overthrew the tyranny of France at 
Leipsic. 

3. The Naval Campaign (1803-1805). — On the renewal 
of the war, Napoleon at once determined to prepare for the 
invasion of England. Meanwhile, to injure English commerce, 
Hanover was invaded, and the Elbe and Weser were closed to 
British ships. To invade England, Napoleon had to con- 



George III. 433 

centrate near some point on the coast the armies for the 
invasion, and the vessels to transport them. His plan was 
to collect a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats, and at the same 
time to create a fleet which should be strong enough to 
control the Channel for a time sufficient for the flotilla to 
cross in safety. A thousand flat-bottomed boats, capable of 
carrying ioo men each, were ordered to be built in the 
harbours of France, and in the ports in Holland and the 
North Sea, and these were gradually concentrated near 
Boulogne. By July, 1805, transports for 40,000 men were 
in readiness in Boulogne harbour, and in the neighbouring 
harbours there were flotillas sufficient for 62,000 more. The 
" army of England," stationed at Boulogne, comprised 130,000 
men, and the soldiers were constantly exercised in embarking, 
so that the first favourable opportunity might be seized without 
delay. The army waited from May, 1803, to August, 1805, but 
the opportunity never came. The English fleets watched the 
French coasts from Brest to Toulon, thus preventing the 
junction of the French fleets, which would have been the signal 
for the Boulogne flotilla to start. The English Admiralty wisely 
refused to keep English fleets near the English ports, holding 
that England's first line of defence was her blockading fleets 
outside the French harbours. 

In 1804 Spain declared war against Great Britain, and 
agreed to furnish Napoleon with twenty-five ships of the line 
and eleven frigates. The emperor already controlled the 
naval resources of Holland, and he now worked out his final 
plan for the invasion of England. His primary aim was to 
draw away the English fleets by a stratagem which should 
cause the English admirals to believe that he was planning an 
attack on the one hand on Egypt, and on the other on the 
West Indies. Admiral Villeneuve was therefore ordered to 
escape from Toulon, which was blockaded by Nelson, sail 
through the Straits of Gibraltar to Cadiz, and after releasing 
the Spanish ships blockaded there, he was to proceed to 
Martinique. Here he was to be joined by the Brest fleet 
under Ganteaume and the combined fleet, having enticed the 

2 F 



434 George III. 

English fleets away from their centres of observation, was to 
steer across the Atlantic for the English Channel. 

Villeneuve successfully escaped from Toulon, and after 
releasing the Spanish ships at Cadiz, sailed to Martinique. 
But Ganteaume was unable to get out of Brest, and therefore 
Napoleon modified his plan. He ordered Villeneuve to return 
to Europe, release the ships blockaded at Ferrol, liberate 
Ganteaume at Brest, and, with a fleet of fifty-six ships of the 
line, enter the Channel. 

Meanwhile Nelson, on learning that Villeneuve was crossing 
the Atlantic, had started in pursuit, and after being seriously 
delayed by contrary winds, reached Barbados. Villeneuve at 
once started for Europe, and Nelson after searching in vain 
for the enemy, set sail across the Atlantic, sending on a fast 
sailing ship to warn the Admiralty of the danger. The result 
was the strengthening of the English fleet off Ferrol, and 
an order to its commander, Sir Robert Calder, to intercept 
Villeneuve off Cape Finisterre. Here Calder fought an in- 
decisive battle with Villeneuve, and the latter was allowed to 
effect a junction with the ships in Ferrol harbour. Napoleon 
now hourly expected that Villeneuve, who had twenty-nine 
ships, would release the twenty-five ships shut up in Brest and 
enter the Channel. Unfortunately for the emperor's schemes, 
Villeneuve, deceived by a report that a large hostile fleet was 
near, took refuge at Cadiz. Napoleon's plan for the invasion 
of England was at an end. 

4. Austerlitz and Trafalgar (1805). — During the 
progress of the great naval campaign Pitt had been busily 
occupied in building up the third coalition against France. 
It was joined by Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Naples, and 
its main objects were to expel the French from Holland, 
Switzerland, Italy, and Hanover. Prussia clung to the policy 
of neutrality which she had adopted since the Treaty of Basel 
(1795). The plan of campaign was that the Austrian army 
under the Archduke Charles should invade Lombardy, while a 
second army under General Mack, reinforced by Russians, 
should invade France. 



George III. 435 

Once more the rapidity of Napoleon's movements swept 
away the slow combinations of the allies. As soon as the 
emperor realised that Villeneuve had ruined his plans for the 
invasion of England, he broke up his camp at Boulogne, 
and turned on Austria. In a few weeks Mack's army was 
surrounded at Ulm, and capitulated. Vienna was occupied 
by Napoleon, and the Austrian and Russian troops retreated 
into Moravia. Napoleon started in pursuit, and in December 
2, 1805, the "Battle of the Three Emperors" was fought at 
Austerlitz. The Tsar Alexander and the Emperor Francis II. 
were defeated, and the Russians withdrew. Francis had to 
agree to the Peace of Pressburg, by which Austria lost Venice 
and the Tyrol, and recognised the independence of Napo- 
leon's allies in Germany, Bavaria, Wiirtemburg, and Baden. 
Prussia, whose feeble and shifty diplomacy had allowed 
Austria to be crushed, was rewarded by the cession of Hanover. 

The capitulation of Ulm and the battle of Austerlitz made 
Napoleon supreme on the Continent, but on the sea the naval 
power of France suffered an overwhelming disaster. Villeneuve 
had been ordered by Napoleon to leave Cadiz and enter the 
Mediterranean, and, knowing that the emperor had accused 
him of cowardice, and that he was on the point of being 
superseded, he determined to strike a great blow to retrieve 
his honour. The combined French and Spanish fleet en- 
countered Nelson off Cape Trafalgar, thirty miles south of 
Cadiz. The allies had thirty-three ships, and the English 
twenty-seven, but Nelson's tactics once more neutralised their 
numerical superiority. The enemy's fleet formed a long line 
of ships, close-hauled to the wind, and heading north. Nelson 
therefore formed his fleet into two columns, one under himself, 
the other under Collingwood. These bore down upon the 
centre of the enemy's line, and cut it into two divisions. The 
rear of the allied fleet was enveloped and destroyed in detail 
by the column under Collingwood's command, while Nelson 
on board the Victory led the second column which joined 
battle with the French ships under Villeneuve. The Victory 
grappted with the Redoubtable, and half an hour after 



436 George III. 

Nelson's column came into action the great admiral was 
mortally wounded. He lived long enough to hear that 
Villeneuve's flag ship the Bucentaure with nineteen other 
ships had been either captured or destroyed. Before going 
into action Nelson had signalled to his fleet, " England expects 
every man to do his duty," and throughout his strenuous 
career he had himself followed the high standard of duty to 
the public service which he had exacted from his subordinates. 
He could die happy in the knowledge that his task was 
achieved, and that the sea-power of Great Britain was now 
secure without a rival. 

The victory of Trafalgar had been won on October 21, 
1805, four days after the surrender at Ulm. When the news 
arrived, Pitt was entertained by the City at the Guildhall 
as the saviour of Europe. " I return you thanks," he said in 
this, the last of his public utterances, " for the honour you 
have done me. But Europe is not to be saved by any single 
man. England has saved herself by her exertion, and will, as 
I trust, save Europe by her example." A month later came 
the news of Austerlitz, and the overthrow of the coalition 
which Pitt had inspired. His health gave way under the 
accumulated strain of victory and disaster, and on January 23, 
1806 the great minister died. He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey in the tomb which contained the body of his father. 

5. The Second MahrattaWar (1802-1805).— War with 
France, as in the eighteenth century, reacted on the position 
of England in India. The overthrow of Tippoo Sultan in 
1799, an d the partition of Mysore brought the British power 
in India into collision with the Mahrattas, who held sway 
over a great part of Central India. On the death of Mahadaji 
Sindhia the Mahratta empire split into five divisions, among 
which that of the Peishwa of Poona was the chief. One of 
the five chieftains, Holkar, drove the Peishwa out of Poona, 
and the latter took refuge at Bombay. Here he concluded the 
Treaty of Bassein (1802) with the Marquis Wellesley (formerly 
Lord Mornington), and agreed to become a vassal in return 
for British support. The other Mahratta chiefs at once 



George III. 437 

combined against British predominance, and war broke out. 
Arthur Wellesley, the brother of the Governor-General, con- 
ducted a brilliant campaign, in which he won two great 
victories at Assaye and Argaum in the Deccan, while General 
Lake captured Delhi and Agra, and restored the aged Shah 
Alam to the throne of the Moguls. Throughout the struggle 
the influence of France had been traceable, and when Sindhia 
and Bhonsla, two of the Mahratta chieftains, sued for terms 
they were compelled to dismiss the French officers in their 
service and make territorial cessions. The Peishwa of Poona 
was restored, and the nominal ruler of India, Shah Alam 
became a British dependent. In 1805 Arthur Wellesley 
returned to England. ■ 

6. The Grenville and Portland Ministries (1806-1807). 
—The death of Pitt was followed by the formation of the 
"Ministry of All the Talents." Lord Grenville became prime 
minister, and under him a coalition of Whigs and Tories was 
formed. Fox, in spite of the king's opposition, was foreign 
secretary, and with him served Addington— now Lord Sidmouth 
—Windham, and Grey. Fox in the early days of the war against 
the Revolution had parted company with Burke over the 
question of the French war, and he now endeavoured to come to 
terms with Napoleon. But the negotiations soon convinced him 
that the emperor did not want peace, and he died disheartened 
and disillusioned after nine months of office. In 1807 the 
Grenville Ministry quarrelled with the king over the question 
of concessions to the Catholics, and was dismissed. Before it 
fell it had achieved one memorable reform, the prohibition of 
the slave-trade. 

A new Tory Ministry was now formed by the Duke of 
Portland, with Perceval as chancellor of the exchequer, 
Canning as foreign secretary, and Hawkesbury, the future 
Lord Liverpool, as home secretary, all three of whom were 
destined to occupy the position of prime minister. The 
Ministry was practically pledged to the king to resist all 
Catholic claims, and a general election showed that the king 
in this represented correctly the wishes of the nation. 



438 George III. 

7. The "Continental System" (1806.)— After Auster- 
litz, Napoleon had assumed the proud position of a dispenser 
of kingdoms and principalities. The Italian Republic was 
abolished, and Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy. 
Hanover had been taken from George III. and given to Prussia 
in return for territorial cessions to France, and the acceptance 
.of the French alliance. The French allies in Germany were 
rewarded for their support by the gift of provinces taken from 
Austria. The electors of Bavaria and Wiirtemburg received 
the royal title. In 1806 Ferdinand IV. was expelled from 
Naples, and Joseph Bonaparte became King of the Two 
Sicilies. Venice was annexed to the kingdom of Italy. 
Holland was formed into a kingdom for Louis Bonaparte. 
Duchies and princedoms were showered on Napoleon's 
marshals, and his power in Germany was consolidated by 
the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine, which as a 
counterpoise to Prussia and Austria, was placed under the 
protection of France. At the bidding of Napoleon the Holy 
Roman Empire ceased to exist. Francis II. abdicated the 
office of Head of the Empire, which in theory had existed 
since the days of Augustus, and assumed the title of Emperor 
of Austria. 

It was now the turn of Prussia to feel the heavy hand of 
France. Under the feeble king, Frederick William III., 
Prussia had stultified herself by a vacillating policy, which had 
allowed Austria to be crushed, and had established the domi- 
nation of France over Germany. Prussia, however, was bitterly 
aggrieved by the offer which Napoleon now made to England of 
a restoration of Hanover, and declared war. The punishment 
meted out to Prussia was swift and decisive. On the same day 
the Prussian armies were defeated at Jena and Auerstadt, 
and within a month from the declaration of war, Berlin was 
occupied. Napoleon pursued Frederick William into Prussian 
Poland, and in 1807 fought an indecisive battle at Eylau 
against the Russians and Prussians. This was, however, 
followed by a great victory at Friedland, and the Tsar, 
Alexander I., agreed to the Treaty of Tilsit. Prussia lost 



George III. 439 

her dominions west of the Elbe, which, with Hanover and 
other provinces, went to form the kingdom of Westphalia for 
Napoleon's youngest brother, Jerome. In return for her 
services in holding down Germany from revolt, Russia was to 
have a free hand in dealing with Turkey and Sweden. 

In November, 1806, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree. 
This declared the British Isles in a state of blockade, forbade 
the allies of France to trade with them, and ordered the con- 
fiscation of all British property found in the states occupied by 
French troops. Great Britain at once replied by the Orders in 
Council which prohibited neutrals from trading with France or 
her allies. In 1807 Napoleon completed the " Continental 
System," as it was called, by the Milan Decree, which ordered 
that any ship which touched at a British port should be liable 
to confiscation. Meanwhile, England had proceeded from 
words to acts. Canning, knowing that France and Russia 
had determined to seize the Danish navy, sent a fleet ^ to 
Copenhagen to demand the surrender of the Danish ships. 
The Danes refused, but the bombardment of Copenhagen 
forced them to acquiesce, and the Danish fleet was brought 
to England. 

8. Napoleon in Spain (1809.)— For ten years Spain had 
followed humbly in the wake of French policy. She had made 
war and peace at the bidding of Napoleon, and on her fleets 
and commerce had fallen the crushing blows of the sea-power 
of England. In 1807 she allowed the French army to pass 
through her territory to conquer Portugal, which had refused 
to bow to the " Continental System." Having taken posses- 
sion of Portugal, Napoleon determined to oust the House of 
Bourbon from Spain. The country was governed by the in- 
competent Charles IV., who was bitterly opposed by his son 
Ferdinand. The king and his son were summoned before 
Napoleon at Bayonne, and were compelled to resign their 
claims. Joseph Bonaparte was transferred from the throne of 
Naples to that of Spain. This high-handed proceeding roused 
the resentment of patriotic Spaniards, and Napoleon soon 
found himself opposed by the whole nation, and committed 



440 George III. 

to a guerilla warfare, in which Spaniards were particularly 
adept. His treatment of Spain was, in fact, a colossal blunder, 
and marked the beginning of his downfall. In 1808 the French 
general, Dupont, was compelled to capitulate at Baylen, and 
Joseph fled from Madrid. 

England had determined not to allow her ancient ally, 
Portugal, to succumb, and a force under Sir Arthur Wellesley 
landed in Portugal and marched on Lisbon. The English 
were attacked at Vimiero by Marshal Junot, and after hard 
fighting the French were defeated. In defiance of Wellesley's 
wishes Sir Hew Dalrymple, who had just arrived from England 
to take over the command, concluded the Convention of Cintra, 
by which the French evacuated Portugal on condition of being 
transported to France in British ships. 

In the winter of 1808 Napoleon appeared in Spain, and, 
after some successful engagements, entered Madrid. The 
British Government, meanwhile, had recalled Dalrymple and 
Wellesley to answer for the Convention of Cintra, which had 
allowed Junot's army to escape, and, before Wellesley could 
return to Portugal cleared of all responsibility for the blunder, 
Sir John Moore had attempted a daring diversion by invading 
Spain. Advancing as far as Salamanca, he cut the French line 
of communications. Napoleon hurried north from Madrid, 
abandoning his intention to attack Lisbon, and the French 
army was drawn by the skilful tactics of Sir John Moore into 
a pursuit which extended into Galicia. Napoleon himself 
gave up the attempt to bring Moore to a battle, and returned 
to France; but at Corunna, where British transports awaited 
him, Moore turned on his pursuers. The French were 
defeated, but Moore was mortally wounded (1809). Shortly 
after, Wellesley returned to Portugal to take command of the 
Anglo-Portuguese forces, and the long campaigns of the Penin- 
sular War began, which for five years drained French resources, 
and ended, in 1813, with the invasion of France. 

9. Wagram and Walcheren (1809).— Napoleon had 
been recalled from Spain by the news that Austria had declared 
war and had inflicted defeats on his generals. The emperor's 



George III. 441 

presence soon restored the balance in favour of France. As 
usual, he struck directly at Vienna. The capital was occupied, 
and a battle was fought at Aspern on the Danube, below 
Vienna, which was practically a reverse for the French. At 
Wagram, however, the Austrians were defeated, and by the 
Peace of Vienna Austria was stripped of her territories in 
Poland and on the shores of the Adriatic. Napoleon's empire 
now stretched to the borders of Bosnia, and Austria was cut 
off from the sea. Since the outbreak of the struggle with 
France in 1792, Austria had been thrust back from the Rhine 
and Mediterranean, and had been driven out of Italy, Germany, 
Belgium, and Polish Galicia, as well as from the Tyrol and 
other hereditary dominions of the House of Hapsburg. Hence- 
forward, Austria, under the guidance of Metternich, ceased to 
champion the interests of Germany. The change was empha- 
sised by the marriage of Napoleon to the emperor's daughter, 
Marie Louise. The Pope, Pius VII., had been carried away 
captive, and the papal States annexed (1809). The birth of 
a son to Napoleon and Marie Louise seemed to mark the com- 
pletion of the emperor's ambitions. The young prince received 
the title of King of Rome. 

Meanwhile, a great effort on the part of England had 
proved a disastrous failure. A fleet had landed an army of 
70,000 men at the mouth of the Scheldt, under the command 
of the incompetent Earl of Chatham, Pitt's elder brother. 
Three weeks were wasted on the swampy isle of Walcheren ; 
and Antwerp, the object of the expedition, was not even 
attacked. Thousands of the troops were struck down by fever, 
and the army was ordered home. 

10. The Peninsular Campaigns (1809-1811.)— Welles- 
ley opened the campaign of 1809 by driving the French, under 
Soult, out of Portugal, and he then made a daring attempt to 
march on Madrid ; but he found himself ill-supported by the 
Spaniards, and his communications with Portugal threatened 
by Soult. He therefore entrenched himself at Talavera, where 
he won a victory over the combined army of Marshal Victor 
and Joseph Bonaparte. Finding himself threatened on all 



442 George III. 

sides by converging armies, he beat a retreat into Portugal. 
For his services this year, Wellesley was made Viscount 
Wellington. 

The overthrow of Austria at Wagram enabled Napoleon, 
in 1810, to send Massena with a large army to expel the 
English from Portugal. But Wellington had anticipated the 
attack, and during the winter had secretly constructed a series 
of fortifications, the " Lines of Torres Vedras," running from 
the estuary of the Tagus to the sea, and thus protecting the 
peninsula on which Lisbon stands. As Massena advanced 
into Portugal, Wellington fell back, only stopping to inflict 
a severe check on the French at Busaco. After the victory 
he withdrew behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. Massena 
was thunderstruck at finding himself confronted by an im- 
pregnable line of defences where he had expected no diffi- 
culties, and, after wasting six months before the lines, he 
retreated into Spain, after a campaign which had cost him 
30,000 men. 

In 181 1 Wellington was strongly reinforced from England, 
and was enabled to take the offensive. On the northern 
frontier of Portugal he attacked the fortresses of Almeida and 
Ciudad Rodrigo, while an Anglo-Spanish force under Lord 
Beresford laid siege to Badajoz. Massena tried to save 
Almeida, but was defeated at Fuentes d'Onoro, and Almeida 
surrendered. Ten days later Beresford was attacked at 
Albuera by Soult, and the French were only defeated after a 
heavy sacrifice of life, mainly due to the incapacity of the 
English general. Wellington therefore gave up, for the 
moment, his plans for invading Spain, and retired behind his 
defences in Portugal. 

11. The Regency (1810). — Since 1807 the Portland 
Ministry had continued in office, but in 1809 Canning quarrelled 
with Castlereagh, the minister of war, over the management 
of the Peninsular War, and after a duel the two ministers 
resigned. The Duke of Portland also retired, and the Tory 
Ministry was reconstructed under Perceval, with Lord Liverpool 
as war minister, and Lord Palmerston as under-secretary. 



444 George III. 

The new ministers," like their predecessors, never really grasped 
the importance of Wellington's struggle in the Peninsula, and 
the war was constantly starved in order to undertake enterprises 
in other directions. 

In 1810 George III. became permanently insane, and his 
son, Prince. George, was made regent. As he had always been 
in alliance with the Whigs against his father, the Opposition 
expected the fall of the Tories and a summons to office. But 
the regent was indolent and vicious, and after a half-hearted 
attempt to do something for his Whig friends, which only 
roused their indignation, he allowed the Perceval Ministry to 
retain power. In 181 2 Perceval was assassinated, and Lord 
Liverpool became prime minister. The Tories showed no 
capacity for conducting a large war, and their domestic policy 
was of the narrowest description ; but they clung to the belief 
that the downfall of Napoleon was necessary to the peace of 
Europe, and their tenacity of purpose in the end reaped its 
reward. 

12. The War of Liberation (1812-1814). — In 1812 a 
series of misunderstandings between Napoleon and the Tsar 
Alexander ended in war. The " Continental System " had 
injured trade between Russia and England, and the Tsar saw 
no reason for sacrificing the internal prosperity of Russia to 
Napoleon's hatred of England. A huge French army passed 
through Germany and Poland, and invaded Russia. But 
Napoleon, although successful when he could draw the 
Russians into a battle, failed to inflict any decisive blow like 
those of his campaigns against Austria and Prussia. On 
reaching Moscow he was compelled to retreat, and in the 
winter of 181 2, after terrible sufferings, only one-tenth of his 
splendid army recrossed the frontier into Poland. 

On Spain the French hold slackened as Napoleon's 
position in Central Europe became more precarious. In 
1 81 2 Wellington captured the fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo 
and Badajoz, and inflicted a defeat on the French at Sala- 
manca. He then occupied Madrid, but finding his hold on 
the capital insecure, he retreated for the third time into 



George III. 445 

Portugal. In the following year (1813) the best French troops 
were called away to Germany, and Wellington's successes were 
unbroken. Advancing northwards he defeated Jourdan at 
Vittoria, captured St. Sebastian and Pampeluna, and began to 
fight his way through the passes of the Pyrenees. 

Meanwhile throughout 181 3 Napoleon had been fighting 
a desperate struggle against his enemies. Prussia had been 
regenerated by her disasters, and was now ready to strike a 
blow for the freedom of Germany. Prussia and Russia joined 
forces against France, and Napoleon could now only meet his 
enemies with raw recruits in the place of the splendid veterans 
who had perished in Russia. In spite of his disadvantages, 
the emperor at first held his own, but when Austria threw in 
her lot with the coalition, his position became critical. His 
generals were defeated in four battles, and, although he won a 
victory at Dresden, it was clear that he was fighting for his 
existence as a ruler. At Leipsic, on October 18, 181 3, the 
allies closed upon Napoleon, and in the " Battle of the Nations " 
the Napoleonic ascendency was destroyed. In 181 4 France 
was invaded from the south by Wellington, who drove Soult 
before him as far as Toulouse. From the east the allied 
armies poured into France, and, after some successes, in which 
he showed all his marvellous strategical powers, the emperor 
was overwhelmed by the news that Paris had surrendered. He 
at once abdicated, and was sent to Elba. The Comte de 
Provence, after twenty-three years of exile, returned to Paris as 
king, taking the title of Louis XVIII. 

13. The War with the United States (1812-1814).— 
The " Continental System " had imposed an intolerable burden 
on Europe, and had drawn Napoleon on to attack Portugal 
and Russia. For similar reasons the English counter-blow, 
the " Orders in Council," inflicted severe injury on the trade of 
foreign countries, and dragged her into an unhappy quarrel 
with the United States. The English prohibition of the direct 
trade of neutrals with any port from which English ships were 
excluded was a serious blow to the tobacco and sugar planters 
of the Southern States. England too late realised the dangerous 



446 George III. 

dispute into which she had drifted, and revoked the prohibition. 
The Southerners had a majority in Congress, and war was 
declared. On land the war was at first favourable to British 
arms, for the American attacks on Canada were repulsed by 
the colonists. But at sea England had the mortification to see 
herself defeated in a series of engagements between single 
ships. The end of the war in France at last enabled her to 
make a serious effort. A large body of the veterans of the 
Peninsular War, who had fought under Wellington in the south 
of France, were transported from Bordeaux by a fleet under 
Admiral Cockburn. The expedition sailed up the Chesapeake 
to attack Washington. The troops under General Ross de- 
feated the Americans at Bladensburg, and destroyed the public 
buildings of the capital — an act of warfare which roused bitter 
indignation (18 14). The other military operations of the 
British troops, the attacks on Plattsburg on Lake Champlain, 
and on Baltimore and New Orleans, were unsuccessful. At 
New Orleans Sir Edward Pakenham, who attempted to carry 
by storm a strongly entrenched position, was mortally wounded, 
and the British loss was very heavy (18 15). Before the news 
of this defeat reached England, peace had been signed at 
Ghent (1814). 

14. The "Hundred Days" (1815).— In 1814 a great 
Congress of the representatives of all the European Powers 
met at Vienna to decide the numerous questions which the 
overthrow of the Napoleonic ascendency brought to the sur- 
face. The proceedings at once revealed the deep-seated 
jealousies between the great Powers, and Talleyrand, the 
French ambassador, taking advantage of the antagonisms of 
Prussia, Austria, and Russia, soon gained a decisive influence 
over the actions of the Congress. The Congress marks the 
formal triumph of the reaction against the principles of the 
Revolution ; for its proceedings were characterised by a dis- 
regard of popular rights, of differences of race and religion, and 
of historical tradition, worthy of Napoleon in his most absolute 
days. Europe was treated as if it were " a blank map which 
might be divided into arbitrary districts of so many square 



George III. 447 

miles and so many inhabitants." 1 The old system, dear to 
the politicians of eighteenth-century Europe, was revived on a 
grand scale, and once more, as Alberoni had said of the policy 
of his day, states and kingdoms were cut and pared " as if they 
were Dutch cheeses."' Amongst the diplomats thus engaged 
the news that Napoleon had left Elba and landed at Cannes 
(March i, 1815) fell like a thunderbolt. 

The accession of Louis XVIII. had been followed by a 
reaction amongst the French in favour of Napoleon, and, 
counting on this, the emperor threw himself on the support of 
the nation. While town after town opened its gates to him, 
and the troops sent against him rallied to his side, his rival, 
Louis XVI 1 1., left Paris, and fled to Flanders. Napoleon 
entered the capital, and proclaimed himself emperor. He 
promised that his rule should be one of peace, and that the 
nation should receive a liberal constitution. His overtures to 
the Powers were met by a proclamation which denounced him 
as the public enemy of Europe. A combined invasion of 
France was at once agreed upon, and the armies of England 
and Prussia, under Wellington and Bliicher, were massed in 
Belgium, where it was certain that the first blow would be 
struck. 

Napoleon at once endeavoured to follow his favourite 
tactics of dealing his enemies separately an overwhelming blow 
before they had time to combine against him. He therefore 
crossed the Belgian frontier, and thrust his army between the 
forces of the allies. The Duke of Wellington's army was made 
up of British, Belgian, and Hanoverian troops, and to cover 
Brussels its lines extended from Charleroi to Ostend, while the 
Prussian army defended the line from Charleroi to Liege. 
Napoleon therefore cut the allied line at Charleroi, and attacked 
Bliicher, while Marshal Ney marched northwards to prevent 
Wellington coming to the help of the Prussians. On June 16 
Napoleon defeated Bliicher at Ligny after a fierce struggle, but 
Ney, although successful in keeping Wellington from joining 
hands with Bliicher, was unable to make any impression on 
1 Lodge, " History of Modern Europe." 



448 George III. 

the British army posted at Quatre Bras, and was forced to fall 
back. 

The two battles on which so much depended had thus only 
been a partial success for Napoleon's plans. The Prussians 
had not been crushed, and had succeeded in retreating on 
Wavre in good order, while Wellington, on June 17, was 
able to withdraw from Quatre Bras unmolested, and concentrate 
his troops at Waterloo, which was ten miles nearer to Brussels 
and within reach of the Prussians, at Wavre. To allow 
Blucher to escape was a blunder of the first magnitude, and to 
this Napoleon added a second by detaching the incompetent 
Grouchy with 30,000 men to pursue the Prussians in the wrong 
direction. Napoleon, in fact, could no longer command the 
fierce energy of body and mind, which had brought him victory 
on so many battle-fields. Although only forty-five years of 
age, a decay of his natural powers had begun. " I do not 
know him again," said one, who had known him in his early 
days of triumphant efficiency, " he talks instead of acting, he 
the man of rapid decisions ; he asks opinions, he the imperious 
dictator, who seemed insulted by advice ; his mind wanders, 
though he used to have the power of attending to everything, 
when and as he would ; he is sleepy, and he used to be able 
to sleep and wake at pleasure." 

On June 18, the last of Napoleon's battles was fought at 
Waterloo. The forces at the emperor's disposal were superior 
to those of Wellington in both numbers and quality, for the 
latter could not rely on the Dutch and Belgian contingents 
under his command. For practical purposes the British general 
had had 50,000 to oppose to Napoleon's 70,000, and besides 
this, he was decidedly inferior in cavalry and artillery. It was, 
therefore, imperative that Wellington should act on the defensive 
until Blucher could bring up the troops which he had promised. 
The morning was wasted by Napoleon in reviewing his troops, 
and it was not till midday that the attack began. 

The battle consisted of five distinct attacks on the British 
position, each attack being preceded by a severe cannonade. 
The first was an attempt to capture the farm of Hougomont, 



George III. 449 

in front of the British right wing, and the attack was repelled. 
The second was an attempt to crush the English left wing, and 
this was defeated by the charge of the Scots Greys, the Ennis- 
killen Dragoons, and the Royals, who drove the enemy down 
the slope and pursued them towards the French lines. The 
commanders of the cavalry, Picton and Ponsonby, were both 
killed. Napoleon then ordered Ney to force the British centre 
and right by a terrific charge of 15,000 cavalry, which was met 
by the British infantry drawn up in squares. For two hours 
the infantry sustained the charges of the cavalry and the 
pounding of the French artillery. In the midst of this, the 
third attack, Napoleon was forced to turn his attention to a 
fresh danger caused by the unexpected arrival of the Prussians, 
who threatened to cut his line at right angles, and thus expose 
his army to a flank attack. At this moment the farm of La Haye 
Sainte had been captured, and the English centre was giving 
way before the fourth attack, but the increasing pressure of the 
Prussian troops made it impossible for Napoleon to send 
reinforcements to support Ney. As a last resort the emperor 
ordered two columns of the " Old Guard," which he had held 
in reserve, with every available regiment, to deliver a final 
attack on the British line. The advance of the French was 
met by a murderous fire from a brigade of the English Guards, 
and as the French wavered, they were charged on the front 
and on the flank, and fell back down the hill in confusion. A 
general order to advance was given, and the British cavalry 
and infantry poured down into the valley, and turned the 
defeat into a rout. The Prussians pursued the flying regiments 
from the field. 

Napoleon hurried to Paris, abdicated in favour of his son, 
and having failed to escape to America, surrendered at Roche- 
fort to the captain of the British ship of war, the Bellerophon. 
" I have terminated my public career," he wrote to the Prince 
Regent, " and I come, like Themistocles, to seat myself at the 
hearth of the British people. I place myself under the pro- 
tection of its laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness 
as the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous 

2 G 



450 George III. 

of my enemies." The appeal met with no response; it was 
felt that Napoleon had placed himself outside the rules of 
ordinary politics, and on arriving at Plymouth, Napoleon heard 
that he was condemned to imprisonment at St. Helena. Here 
he spent the six remaining years of his life, chafing bitterly at 
the restrictions imposed upon him. 

15. The Peace of Paris (1815). — After the fall of Napo- 
leon in 1 8 14, terms of marked leniency had been granted to 
France. Her frontiers were to be those which she had acquired 
before 1792, and she even received territorial extensions in 
Savoy, and towards 'the Rhine. The terms offered after 
Waterloo were practically the same, except that France had 
to pay a war indemnity of £30,000,000, and submit to an 
army of occupation for five years. At the peace, England 
gave back her conquests, except the Cape of Good Hope, 
Malta, Mauritius, Tobago, St. Lucia, and Demerara. Shortly 
after the Peace of Paris the Congress of Vienna ended its 
labours. The Italian possessions of Austria were restored, 
together with Venice, but Belgium and Holland were united 
into the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and given to the House 
of Orange. Prussia gained territory at the expense of Saxony, 
and also extensions on her eastern and western frontiers. 
Russia received a larger share of Poland. The German States 
were united in a Confederacy, but its authority over its 
members was little more than nominal. 

16. The Colonial Empire. — The Battle of Waterloo was 
the last act in the drama of hostility between England and 
France, which had been in progress since 1689. During the 
126 years since the accession of William III., England had 
spent sixty-five years in fighting France. These seven great 
wars had arisen from different causes, but always in the 
background there stood the Colonial rivalry of England 
and France. The long struggle, which raged from the close 
of the seventeenth century to. the opening years of the nine- 
teenth, has been called by a great teacher of history, the 
Second Hundred Years' War with France. 1 The First Hundred 

1 " The Expansion of England." Sir John Seeley. 



George III. 451 

Years' War was an attempt on the part of England to conquer 
France, and it failed. The Second Hundred Years' War was, 
in one aspect, an attempt on the part of England to resist the 
domination of France in the New World, and it succeeded. 
It was fought out in America, in India, in Egypt, in the East 
and West Indies, and was, waged on sea and land. Just as the 
elder Pitt said he would conquer America in Germany in the 
Seven Years' W^ar, so France, in the war of American Indepen- 
dence, endeavoured to conquer England in Europe by support- 
ing the revolted colonists. Napoleon, in 1799, aimed at 
attacking India by seizing Egypt, and the breach of the Peace 
of Amiens was followed by the Mahratta War in India, stimu- 
lated by French agents. If Napoleon had succeeded in crush- 
ing England at Trafalgar, and had carried out her invasion in 
1805, the English colonies would have been the prize of France. 
This was prevented by the sea-power of England, and the 
Second Hundred Years' War left England ruling in safety the 
great Colonial Empire which she had built up during her seven 
great wars at the expense of France, Spain, and Holland. 

17. Social Unrest (18 15-1820).— Great Britain had now 
to face the problems which, during her struggle with Napoleon, 
had been slowly maturing. In the first place she had an 
enormous debt, over 800 millions, and the burden of taxation 
was crushing. Further, the great industrial and agricultural 
changes which had taken place since 1760 had revolutionised 
the life of her people, and had entailed terrible sufferings. The 
treatment of the Poor-Law problem during the last thirty-five 
years had been disastrous. In 1782, by Gilbert's Act, the work- 
house test, by which support was only given to the indigent if 
they entered a work-house, was abolished in favour of giving 
grants out of the rates supplementary of wages. This pernicious 
practice was largely extended by an important gathering of 
magistrates at the so-called "Speenhamland Parliament" (1795). 
The labouring classes were degraded by a system of doles at 
the public expense, and the poor-rate rose rapidly, till in 1813 it 
stood at seven millions. The system was mainly dictated by 
a benevolent desire to tide the labourers over a period of 



452 George III. 

distress, but its pauperising effect was patent everywhere. The 
distress was largely caused by the high price of wheat, and this 
in turn was due to the great increase of population, which 
necessitated the cultivation of inferior soils. After the peace, 
the importation of foreign corn largely increased, and the 
Government, to protect the farming interest, passed a protective 
law, forbidding the importation unless wheat rose above 80s. 
a quarter. The distress caused by unwise legislation led to 
agricultural riots. In the towns also the employment was 
uncertain, and the artisans, ascribing this to the increasing use 
of machinery, broke out in riots in which factories were 
wrecked. 

Unfortunately the Government was in the hands of Lord 
Liverpool, and the narrowest section of the Tories, and popular 
excitement was met, not by the removal of grievances, but by 
the revival of the repressive measures of the end of the 
eighteenth century. The Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, 
public meetings were suppressed, and freedom of the Press was 
restricted. All projects of reform were met by unqualified 
opposition. In 181 9 a great open-air meeting was planned at 
Manchester, in spite of the prohibition of the magistrates. 
These, therefore, ordered some cavalry to break into the 
meeting, and the result was a panic, in which several persons 
were killed and many seriously injured. The " Manchester 
Massacre," as it was called, roused violent indignation through- 
out the country, but the magistrates were publicly commended 
by the Government. A series of coercion acts, known as the 
"Six Acts," codified the harsh system of repression. It was 
amidst these circumstances of gloom and bitterness that the 
reign of George III. came to an end. 



George III. 453 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Pitt returns to office 1804. 

Battle of Trafalgar 1805. 

Death of Pitt l8 o6. 

Slave-trade abolished 1807. 

The Berlin Decree and the Orders in 

Council 1806, 1807. 

Bombardment of Copenhagen 1807. 

Peninsular War begins 1808. 

Battles of Corunna and Talavera .... 1809. 

The " Lines of Torres Vedras " 1810. 

Battles of Fuentes d'Onoro and Albuera . . 181 1. 

Battle of Salamanca 1812. 

Battle of Vittoria 1813. 

Battle of Leipsic I 8i3« 

Battle of Waterloo 1815. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

GEORGE IV. ( 1 820- 1 830) ; WILLIAM IV. (1830-1837). 

i. The Cato Street Conspiracy (1820). — The accession 
of the regent to the throne as George IV. brought no change 
in the character of the Government. The narrow Tory 
Ministry of Lord Liverpool, with Castlereagb and Sidmouth as 
the representatives of the policy of repression, continued in office. 
The working classes were profoundly angered by the " Man- 
chester Massacre," and wild plans of insurrection were spread 
abroad. Thistlewood and a handful of desperate men plotted 
to seize and murder the ministers while they were dining at 
Lord Harrowby's house in Grosvenor Square. This was to be 
followed by an attack on the Bank and the Tower. The plans 
were betrayed to the Government, and the conspirators were 
surrounded at their meeting-place in Cato Street. Thistlewood 
and four of his associates were executed. Riots also broke 
out in the north and in Scotland, and a collision took place 
between an armed force of Radicals and the yeomanry at 
Bonnymuir, near Glasgow. These outbreaks, however, only 
showed that the populace had no chance against the Govern- 
ment, armed with all the weapons of coercion, and by alarming 
the well-to-do classes they tended to put off the era of reform. 
2. Caroline of Brunswick. — The married life of George 
IV. had been unhappy. The king had from the first con- 
ceived a dislike for his wife, and after the birth of their 
daughter, the Princess Charlotte, Caroline had lived apart 
from her husband. In 18 14 Caroline went abroad, and by the 
foolishness of her conduct during her roving life on the Con- 
tinent and in the East, she laid herself open to charges of grave 

454 



George IV. and William IV. 455 

misconduct. Her husband sedulously collected all the evil 
reports that his spies brought him, in the hopes of obtaining 
from Parliament a decision nullifying his marriage. His own 
life, however, was notoriously profligate, and his treatment of 
his wife only aroused sympathy on behalf of a woman, who, 
whatever her faults might have been, had been cruelly 
wronged. 

The king's accession at once brought matters to a crisis. 
Caroline returned to England, and was enthusiastically wel- 
comed. An inquiry into • her conduct was instituted by Lord 
Liverpool's Government, and a Bill was introduced into the 
Lords to dissolve her marriage. But it only passed the third 
reading by a small majority, and the Government, realising 
that the Commons would reject it, withdrew the measure. At 
the Coronation ceremony the queen tried to force her way into 
the Abbey, but her courage failed her, and she returned home. 
In the following month her death released the nation from an 
intolerable situation. 

3. Ministerial Changes. — Throughout the struggle the 
cause of the queen had been espoused by the Opposition in 
Parliament, while Canning, the most enlightened of the Tories, 
had retired from the Ministry to avoid supporting measures 
against the queen, who had been one of his oldest friends. 
The Ministry was much shaken by the unpopularity which it 
had incurred, and to strengthen himself, Liverpool admitted 
the young statesman, Robert Peel, to the Home Office, from 
which Lord Sidmouth retired (1822). In 1822 Castlereagh, 
now Lord Londonderry, broke down under the strain of Par- 
liamentary life, and committed suicide. His death gave the 
final blow to the system of repression under which every 
reform was treated as aiming at a revolution. The post of 
foreign minister was given to Canning, and Huskisson, the 
staunch supporter of a policy of Free Trade, became President 
of the Board of Trade. This admission of the liberal Tories 
transformed the Liverpool Ministry, and the dark days of 
coercion were followed by the opening of the era of reforms. 

4. Reforms (1823-1825). — The English criminal code 



456 George IV. and William IV. 

was in a most chaotic state. While in France the great 
lawyers at Napoleon's bidding had codified French laws and 
removed many anomalies, the English system retained the 
barbarous penalties which had been handed down from the 
Middle Ages. Two hundred offences could be punished 
legally by death, and the crimes for which the death penalty 
was considered appropriate ranged from treason and murder 
down to such petty offences as robbing a rabbit-warren. 
The cause of reform had been upheld since 1808 by the 
humane lawyer Samuel Romilly, and through his influence the 
number of capital offences was reduced. After Romilly's 
death in 18 18, Mackintosh took up the question, and in 18 19 
obtained a committee to report on the Criminal Law. It 
reported in favour of abolishing capital punishment in the case 
of a number of offences, but the opposition of the House of 
Lords frustrated much of its work. In 1823, however, Peel 
took up the subject, and bills were passed abolishing the death 
penalty in the case of a hundred offences. 

The reforms of Huskisson at the Board of Trade were of 
great commercial importance. The Navigation Laws of the 
Commonwealth and Charles II., although undoubtedly instru- 
mental in building up the naval power of England, had long 
outlived their justification. As we have seen, they contributed 
to the loss of the American colonies, and they were a constant 
source of friction with foreign powers. The United States and 
the other countries excluded from the English carrying trade 
retaliated by a similar policy, with the result that English ships 
carrying goods from America to England were not allowed to 
carry English goods to America on the return journey. The 
absurdity and wastefulness of the system became so patent that 
in 1822 Wallace, Vice-president of the Board of Trade, in- 
duced Parliament to repeal the chief provisions of the Navi- 
gation Act of Charles II. Huskisson continued the policy 
begun by Wallace, and obtained leave from Parliament to 
admit foreign ships to British ports, provided that British ships 
received the same treatment in foreign ports (1823). 

The result of these reforms, and of those instituted in the 



George IV. and William IV. 457 

management of the revenue by Robinson, the chancellor of the 
exchequer, was a revival of national prosperity. Unfortunately 
the revival of commercial confidence led to a great outburst of 
speculative dealing and to the formation of a number of joint- 
stock companies, which traded on the credulity of the investing 
public. The Bank of England and the country banks were 
partly responsible for this by their excessive issue of bank- 
notes, and by the facilities which they afforded to borrowers, 
who aimed at taking advantage of the buoyancy of the markets 
in order to buy goods to sell at higher prices. The inevitable 
result was a financial crisis and the suspension of payment by a 
large number of banks which were unable to call in their loans. 
The panic went on throughout 1825, but the wise measures of 
the Government did much to allay the excitement, and by the 
close of the year it had subsided. The loss to the country 
had been, however, very severe. 

5. Canning's Foreign Policy (1822-1827).— The fall 
of Napoleon had been mainly due to the fact that his violent 
conduct had roused the national spirit amongst the peoples 
whom he conquered. But at the Congress of Vienna the idea 
of nationality had been completely ignored, and the sovereigns 
of Continental States affected to regard their success as a 
vindication of the principles of despotism. Alexander I. of 
Russia, with Frederick William III. of Prussia, and Francis I. 
of Austria, formed in 181 5 the Holy Alliance to stifle every 
tendency towards constitutional government in their own 
dominions, and in those of their neighbours. This policy 
Lord Castlereagh could not prevent, and the result was that 
the members of the Holy Alliance prepared to intervene in 
Naples, Spain, and Portugal, to put down popular movements. 
Austrian troops invaded Naples, and restored the authority of 
the Bourbon king, Ferdinand IV. (1821). In 1823 the Govern- 
ment of Louis XVIII. sent French troops to enable another 
Bourbon prince, Ferdinand VII., to crush the constitutional 
party in Spain. 

The accession of Canning to power as foreign minister 
led to the abandonment of Castlereagh's policy of condoning 



458 George IV. and William IV. 

the high-handed action of the Holy Alliance. The new 
minister refused to admit the right of the great Powers to 
interfere in the internal concerns of their neighbours, and he 
sent troops to Portugal to defend that country against a 
threatened invasion by French and Spanish troops in the 
interests of despotism. He also declined to admit that the 
impotent efforts of Spain to regain her dominion over her 
revolted colonies in South America constituted any valid claim 
over them, and in 1824 he recognised the independence of 
Buenos Ayres, Colombia, and Mexico. " I resolved," he 
declared two years later, " that if France had Spain, it should 
not be Spain with the Indies ; I called the New World into 
existence to redress the balance of the Old." Canning's action 
was rendered still more potent by the intervention of Monroe, 
President of the United States, who in 1823 laid down the 
famous " Monroe Doctrine," that the United States would 
regard as a hostile action any attempt on the part of the Holy 
Alliance to interfere in South America to reconquer the revolted 
colonies. This refusal to allow the Powers of Europe to inter- 
vene in order to alter the balance of power in South America 
has become a cardinal principle of the policy of the United 
States. 

6. The Battle of Navarino (1827). — Since 182 1 a fierce 
struggle had been carried on by Greece against her Turkish 
oppressors, and on the whole the Greek patriots had been 
successful. But it was clear that the Greeks would, in the 
long run, succumb, unless the European Powers came to their 
assistance. England naturally sympathised with the Greeks, 
and many Englishmen, Lord Byron amongst them, joined the 
Greek forces. But there was also a widespread fear lest 
Russia should utilise the Greek revolt in order to further her 
plans for the conquest of Turkey. An unexpected turn was 
given to the course of events by the action of the Turks. In 
1825 Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, sent an army of 17,000 
men, under his son Ibrahim, to help his suzerain, the Sultan, 
to crush the Greeks. The superior training of the Egyptian 
troops soon changed the aspect of affairs, and the prospects 



George IV. and William IV. 459 

of Greek independence seemed hopeless. The Peloponnese 
was conquered, and it was currently believed that Ibrahim had 
determined to transport the Greeks as slaves to Africa, and 
to repeople the country with Mahommedans. The Greeks 
appealed to England, and offered the Greek Crown to the 
Duke of Sussex, brother of George IV. It was obviously 
impossible that the offer should be accepted, but Canning was 
able to induce Russia and France to sign the Treaty of London 
(1827), by which the two Powers were to act as mediators, and 
to demand that meanwhile hostilities should cease. The British 
Mediterranean fleet, under Sir Edward Codrington, was ordered 
to proceed to Greece to enforce the armistice. In doing so 
it was to act in concert with the Russian and French fleets. 
Turkey refused the armistice, and the arrival of reinforcements 
on board a Turco-Egyptian fleet made decisive action impera- 
tive if the Greeks were to be saved from extermination. The 
British, French and Russian squadrons sailed into Navarino 
Bay, where Ibrahim Pasha had concentrated his fleet and 
army, and it was decided to put a stop to the cruelties which 
Ibrahim's troops were practising on the unhappy Greeks. The 
Turkish fleet was anchored in the shape of a horseshoe, and 
after a fruitless endeavour to patch up terms, the allies were 
forced to proceed to hostilities. After a battle of four hours 
the Turkish fleet was annihilated, and the cause of Greek 
independence was saved (October 20, 1827). In 1829 Russian 
troops crossed the Balkans and , advanced to Adrianople. 
Turkey had to purchase a peace by territorial cessions to 
Russia, and by recognising the independence of Greece. The 
Crown of Greece was offered to various princes, and was 
ultimately accepted by Otho, son of the King of Bavaria 

(1832). 

7. The Death of Canning (1827). — Meanwhile, before 
the victory of Navarino had been won, important ministerial 
changes had taken place at home. Early in 1827 Lord 
Liverpool had been attacked by apoplexy, and George IV., 
much against his inclinations, was forced to appoint Canning 
to the premiership. A large section of the Tory party, headed 



460 George IV. and William IV. 

by the Duke of Wellington, profoundly distrusted Canning's 
liberal tendencies, especially with reference to the urgent 
question of Catholic Emancipation, and Canning's accession 
to power led to the secession of Wellington, Peel, and other 
members of the Liverpool Ministry. But Canning could count 
on the support of the Whigs in following a policy of reform, 
and before long the Whigs, Lansdowne and Tierney, joined the 
Ministry. This alliance, however, only increased the resent- 
ment of the extreme Tories, and the Government was fiercely 
attacked in both Houses. Canning's health, already enfeebled, 
rapidly gave way under the strain of the Parliamentary struggle, 
and he died on August 8, 1827. The tragic swiftness of his 
end stilled the animosities which his brilliant career had 
aroused, and the whole nation remembered with gratitude the 
services which he rendered in his later years to the cause of 
constitutional liberty at home and abroad. 

8. The Ministry of Lord Goderich (1827-1828).— 
The Ministry of Canning was followed by Lord Goderich, the 
" Prosperity Robinson," who had been chancellor of the 
exchequer in the later years of Liverpool's administration. 
The new prime minister proved quite unequal to the task 
of reconciling the conflicting views of his colleagues, and, in 
particular, ministers were hopelessly at variance over the 
questions of policy which arose out of the Battle of Navarino. 
Canning had died two months before the policy of befriending 
Greece had reached its logical end, and " Goody Goderich," 
as he was called, recoiled from a rupture with Turkey, and by 
his vacillating policy left the solution of the Greek difficulty 
to be undertaken by Russia. The Battle of Navarino was 
mentioned in the king's speech at the opening of Parliament 
as an "untoward event." Fortunately, after seven months of 
office, Goderich realised his own incompetence to conduct the 
affairs of the nation, and the king's sarcastic order " to go 
home and take care of himself," came as a relief to the 
distressed minister. Wellington was offered, and accepted, 
the post of prime minister, and appointed as his colleagues, 
Huskisson and Palmerston, and a number of other Tories, who 



George IV. and William IV. 461 

had served under Lord Liverpool. The Whigs, who had joined 
in the Canning and Goderich ministries, retired from office. 

9. Catholic Emancipation (1829). — Wellington had 
accepted office from the king, pledged not to support the 
policy of justice to Catholics, but the situation in Ireland soon 
forced him to reconsider his position. Early in 1828 Lord 
John Russell defeated the Government in the Commons on a 
motion in favour of repealing the Test and Corporation Acts, 
and of thus removing the political penalties attached to the 
profession of Nonconformist doctrines. The Government 
was compelled to assent to the abolition of the old sacra- 
mental test, and to the substitution of an oath pledging the 
Dissenter who accepted office not to injure the Established 
Church. 

This concession to Dissent threw the justice of Catholic 
claims into bolder relief, and the question was at once pressed 
on Parliament by Sir Francis Burdett, while the agitation in 
Ireland soon made it impossible to withhold the concession. 
Since 1822 Ireland had been in a state of unrest, with the 
usual result that the Government resorted to coercion. This 
was met by the formation of the Catholic Association by 
O'Connell, and the organisation soon became so powerful 
that in 1825 it was suppressed for a time by Parliament. 
The agitation, however, continued, and was brought to a 
climax in 1828, when O'Connell was elected for County 
Clare in opposition to Fitzgerald, President of the Board of 
Trade. As matters then stood, O'Connell, as a Catholic, was 
incapacitated from taking the seat, but the power of the 
Association, which had been revived, was so overwhelming 
that Wellington, after much hesitation, decided to beat a 
retreat. By threatening to resign, Wellington coerced the king 
into submission, and in 1829 the Catholic Emancipation Act 
was passed. This admitted Catholics to both Houses of 
Parliament, and to all offices, civil and military, except those 
of regent, of lord chancellor, and of Lord-Lieutenant of 
Ireland. 

10. Wellington's Foreign Policy (1 828-1 830). — The 



462 George IV. and William IV. 

reign of George IV. closed with memorable concessions to the 
spirit of liberal reform. But these were wrung from the king 
by the force of circumstances, and the credit of carrying them 
out is merely due to Wellington's sense that further opposition 
to them would entail the most serious dangers. In other 
directions Wellington's Ministry was less successful. In the 
settlement of the Greek question his wishes were set at naught 
by Russia, and he showed no capacity for dealing with the 
grave constitutional questions which were being raised in every 
quarter on the Continent. In Portugal the Pretender, Dom 
Miguel, was allowed to dethrone his niece, Donna Maria, and 
to replace the constitutional system by a despotism. In France 
the Government of Charles X. was tending more and more 
towards an absolutist reaction, and it was generally believed 
that Wellington approved of the policy of Prince Polignac, the 
French prime minister. Wellington was, in fact, looked upon 
by continental Conservatives as the upholder of the settlement 
of 18 1 5, which he had done so much to establish. But the 
artificial arrangements which the Congress of Vienna had 
created were breaking down, and Wellington was unable to 
decide on an effective foreign policy. He had alienated the 
extreme Tories by his concessions to Catholics and Dissenters, 
and the Liberals were indignant at his failures in Greece and 
Portugal. The influence of England in Europe had steadily 
declined since the death of Canning, and this was with justice 
ascribed to Wellington's timid policy. The death of George IV. 
made sweeping political changes inevitable, and set England 
once more on the path of political progress. 

11. The Accession of William IV. (1830).— The late 
king died without direct heirs, for his only child, Princess 
Charlotte, had died in 18 17. As a consequence, his brother, 
William, Duke of Clarence, came to the throne. The new 
king had acquired popularity by his easy-going manners, and 
by his services in the navy. His character, though eccentric, 
was kindly, and his subjects were pleased by his willingness 
to move amongst them without the rigid etiquette which his 
brother had exacted. The reign therefore opened auspiciously, 



George IV. and William IV. 463 

and while on the Continent the "July Revolution" (1830) 
led to the deposition of Charles X., and the accession of 
Louis Philippe as a constitutional king, in England no reaction 
was produced like that after 1789; but, on the contrary, an 
impulse was given to the reforming party. Before the end 
of the year Wellington, believing that any attempt to reform 
Parliament would mean a revolution, declared in the Lords 
that the existing parliamentary system was perfect, and could 
not be improved upon. This challenge to the party of reform 
was promptly met, and a fortnight after this absurd declaration 
the Wellington Ministry was compelled to resign. The king 
at once gave office to the Whigs under Lord Grey (1830). 

12. The Reform Bill (1832). — The parliamentary system 
which Wellington so strongly admired was a compound of the 
strangest anomalies, and of the most foolish anachronisms, 
and only the shrewd common-sense of the members of the 
Legislature had prevented Parliament from failing to discharge 
its functions as interpreter of the wishes of the nation. Since 
the Model Parliament of 1295 profound changes had taken 
place in the composition of the House of Commons through 
the lapse of time and the interference of the Crown. Under 
the Tudors the borough representation had been nearly 
doubled, and the right of representation had been given to 
out-of-the-way places where the influence of the Crown could 
be easily exercised. The result was that while large towns 
like Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester, were unrepresented, 
decayed hamlets, like Old Sarum, returned two members at 
the bidding of the neighbouring landowner. Even in the 
towns which were represented, the right to vote was severely 
restricted, so that it was shown in 1793 that two hundred 
members were returned by places in which the number of 
electors ranged from one hundred to seven. Great noblemen, 
like the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Lonsdale, controlled the 
elections in a number of boroughs, and put in their own 
nominees. The traffic in seats was notorious, and was so well 
understood, that Pitt, in 1785 had proposed to buy out the 
great borough-mongers by the bribe of a million pounds. 



464 George IV. and William IV. 

The question of parliamentary reform had been agitated 
under George III. The elder Pitt denounced the borough 
representation as " the rotten part of the constitution," and 
in 1776 Wilkes proposed a measure of reform. The younger 
Pitt's plans on the subject failed, through the opposition of 
George III., and the reaction against the French Revolution 
postponed for forty years the opportunity for reform. After 
the peace of 18 15 the question revived, and Sir Francis 
Burdett, Lord Grey, and Lord John Russell, pressed the subject 
on Parliament. The death of George IV. and the impulse 
given to popular aspirations by the revolution of 1830 in 
France made the demand for reform irresistible. Lord Grey 
at once announced that the Government staked its existence 
on the question of reform, and the presence in the Ministry 
of Brougham, Lord John Russell, and Lord Durham, was a 
proof that the Ministry was in earnest. 

In 183 1 Russell brought forward the first Reform Bill, which 
passed the second reading by a majority of one. The Ministry 
therefore determined to appeal to the country, and at the general 
elections a large majority in favour of reform was returned. 
The new House of Commons sanctioned the second Reform 
Bill by a majority of one hundred and nine, but it was rejected 
by the Lords. After a prorogation the third Reform Bill was 
brought forward, and was passed by the Commons (1832). 
The House of Lords accepted the principle of the Bill by 
passing its second reading, but in committee amendments were 
threatened which would have mutilated the Bill. After some 
hesitation on the part of the king, which involved a temporary 
resignation of the Ministry, William IV. agreed to coerce the 
Lords by a threat of creating peers sufficient in number to 
secure the passing of the Bill. The Lords gave way, and the 
Reform Bill was passed. Fifty-six rotten boroughs were 
abolished, and thirty boroughs lost one member. The number 
of county members was increased by one-third, and London 
and other large towns received an adequate representation. 
The right of voting in the counties and towns was given to 
a fairly wide electorate composed mainly of the middle classes. 



George IV. and William IV. 465 

13. The Reformed Parliament (1833-1835). — The 

extension of the franchise was not followed by the revolu- 
tionary changes which the Tories had feared. On the contrary, 
a number of moderate reforms were passed during the first 
reformed Parliament. In 1833 an Emancipation Act ordered 
that all slaves should be liberated after 1834, and granted 
^20,000,000 as compensation to the slave-owners. In 1834 
a new Poor Law was passed abolishing the demoralising 
system of doles from the poor-rates to supplement the wages 
of the working-classes. The " Workhouse Test " was re- 
established, and to provide more efficiently for the poor, 
unions of parishes were formed, governed by Guardians of 
the Poor elected by the ratepayers. The poor-rates fell in 
a few years from eight millions to less than five. In 1835 the 
question of municipal reform was also taken up, and the 
Municipal Corporation Act was passed. This swept away the 
oligarchical municipal corporations and created municipalities 
elected by the ratepayers. 

Before this programme of reform had been completed a 
change had taken place in the Ministry. Lord Grey's adminis- 
tration from the first had been weakened by the presence in 
it of a number of Conservative members who had little real 
sympathy with the changes which were in progress. In 1834 
several of these resigned. Lord Grey himself felt that enough 
had been done for the present, and when a quarrel broke out 
in the Cabinet on the subject of Ireland, the Prime Minister 
retired from office. He was succeeded by Lord Melbourne, 
who took orifice with a number of the old ministers under him. 
The Ministry, however, offended the king by its policy on the 
question of Church reform in England and Ireland, and in 
the winter of 1834 it was dismissed. The king then sent for 
Sir Robert Peel, who, since 1830, had been organising the 
forces of the Conservative party in Parliament and the country. 
Peel was supported by Wellington, Aberdeen, and Lyndhurst, 
and, to test the opinion of the country, he advised the king to 
dissolve Parliament. At the general election a large number 
of Conservatives were elected, but the Liberals were still in a 

2 H 



466 George IV. and William IV. 

majority, and after a brave struggle the Peel Ministry had 
to resign. The influence of the Crown had markedly declined 
since George III., and William IV. could not impose a 
minister on Parliament as his father had done in the case of 
Pitt in 1784. Lord Melbourne and the Whigs returned to 
power (1835). 

14. Lord Palmerston's Foreign Policy. — Since 1830 
with short interruptions, the foreign policy of the country had 
been directed by Lord Palmerston, an Irish peer, who had 
entered political life as a Tory, but had passed over to the 
Whigs. He served in the Wellington Ministry, but he had 
retired from it with Huskisson and the other Canningite Tories 
in 1828, and in 1830 he became Secretary for foreign affairs in 
the Grey, and subsequently in the Melbourne administrations. 
He was in favour of a policy of non-intervention in foreign 
affairs, provided that the reactionary governments of the Holy 
Alliance did not interfere to crush the constitutional movement 
on the Continent. He thus upheld the policy which he had 
learnt from his master Canning. In 18 15 the Congress of 
Vienna had united Catholic Belgium to Protestant Holland as 
the kingdom of the Netherlands, but the mutual jealousies of 
the two countries soon showed that the union could not last. 
The effect of the July revolution of 1830 in France was to 
encourage the Belgian patriots, and an insurrection broke 
out which drove the Dutch garrisons out of the country. 
French troops advanced to help the Belgians, and although 
England warmly sympathised with the revolution, she saw with 
apprehension the possibility of Belgium passing definitely under 
French influence. Fortunately Louis Philippe refused to allow 
his son to accept the offer of the Belgian crown, and ultimately, 
through the armed intervention of England and France, the 
independence of Belgium was recognised by the Dutch Govern- 
ment. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg became King of the Belgians 

(1831). 

In Portugal Palmerston was equally successful in upholding 
the cause of constitutional liberty. In 1833, Dom Miguel, 
the usurper of the Portuguese throne, was defeated by the 



George IV. and William IV. 467 

adherents of Donna Maria, and the latter was crowned queen, 
But as Dom Miguel still continued to maintain a hold on some 
part of Portugal, England and France intervened and procured 
his withdrawal. At the same time, through Palmerston's 
influence, the disputed succession to the Spanish throne was 
peaceably settled, and the constitutional system was for the 
moment secured. Unfortunately the war between the child- 
queen, Isabella of Spain, and her rival, Don Carlos, was 
renewed, but on the whole, backed by the support of England, 
Isabella's party maintained its position. English influence in 
Spain, however, roused the jealousies of France, and weakened 
the co-operation of the two countries which had produced such 
good results. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

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Battle of Navarino 1827. 

Test and Corporation Acts repealed . . . 1828. 

Catholic Emancipation Act 1829. 

Reform Bill 1832. 



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CHAPTER XLV. , 

VICTORIA (1837-1901). 

(1) National Progress (1837-1852). 

1. The Queen's Accession. — On June 20, 1837, William IV. 
died, and the longest and most beneficent reign in the history 
of England began. The late king was succeeded by his niece 
Victoria, daughter of his brother, the Duke of Kent. The 
Queen, now in her nineteenth year, had been most carefully 
trained for her high position by her widowed mother, the 
Duchess of Kent, and she at once won the respect and affec- 
tion of her subjects by the simple dignity and straightforward- 
ness of her conduct. From the first she showed her intention 
of ruling as a constitutional sovereign, untouched by the 
jealousies and intrigues inevitable in a system of party govern- 
ment. Her reign was destined to be' one of vast material and 
intellectual progress, but the Queen never lost sight of the 
principles of liberty on which a sovereignty, based on the 
will of the people, must rest its claim to loyalty. There was 
still much in the British Constitution which was undeveloped, 
and the changes in the relations of the Crown to Parliament, 
and of Parliament to the nation, together with the thousand 
difficult problems arising from the needs of an expanding 
Empire, might easily have led to the raising of dangerous 
constitutional questions. But it was the merit of the Queen 
to be ever on the side of prudent concession, and it was her 
supreme achievement to have raised immeasurably the dignity 
and value of her great position, and, as far as Great Britain is 
concerned, to have saved the cause of constitutional monarchy. 
2. The Melbourne Ministry (1 837-1 841). — One great 
advantage of the Queen's accession was the severance of the 

469 



470 Victoria. 

connection with Hanover, which dated from 1714. The 
Hanoverian succession was regulated by the Salic Law, and 
the Queen's uncle, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, therefore 
succeeded. The disappearance of a source of entanglement 
in continental politics was welcome to the nation. Moreover, 
the young Queen was fortunate in having Lord Melbourne as 
her chief adviser, for the prime minister, though almost anxious 
to bear the reputation of levity and frivolity in the world of 
politics, showed to the Queen a tender solicitude for her 
happiness, and a desire to spare her much of the anxiety which 
shadows a throne. Till the Queen's marriage to Albert of 
Saxe-Coburg in 1840, Melbourne stood beside her as a most 
wise and prudent counsellor, and, as a contemporary writes, he 
made it " his province to educate, instruct, and form the most 
interesting mind in the world." The Queen's happy marriage 
placed at her side a young prince, fully qualified to undertake 
the office of confidential adviser, and the unostentatious manner 
in which the Prince Consort carried out the difficult task gained 
the respect of those qualified to appreciate his work. 

The early years of the reign were disturbed by the Chartist 
agitation organised by the Irishman, Feargus O'Connor. 
The effect of the Reform Bill of 1832 had been to admit the 
middle classes to political power, and the lower classes were 
disappointed by their exclusion. The " People's Charter " 
demanded six concessions ; universal suffrage, vote by ballot, 
payment of members of Parliament, equal electoral divisions, 
annual Parliaments, and the abolition of the property qualifica- 
tion for members. The agitation was disgraced by serious 
disturbances, and the huge petition presented by the Chartists 
to Parliament was rejected (1839). Riots followed at Birming- 
ham and Newport which discredited the cause of the reforms. 
The Ministry had been, however, for a long time in a precarious 
state, and in 1839 Melbourne resigned. Sir Robert Peel, the 
brilliant organiser of the Conservative Party, was called on to 
form a Ministry, but failed owing to a difficulty with the Queen 
on the question of whether the ladies of her household should 
retire with the outgoing Whig members to whom they were 



Victoria. 47 l 

related The Queen refused to give way on the " Bedchamber 
Question," and Peel therefore declined office. Melbourne 
returned to power, but in 1841 the Conservatives obtained 
a majority at the general election, and Peel succeeded 
Melbourne as prime minister. ' 

3. Canada (1837-1840).— An important step was taken 
in 1840 towards the great system of self-governing colonies 
on which the Empire is now based. In 1 791 Pitt's Act had 
divided the colony into Upper and Lower Canada, each with 
its governor and legislature. The governor appointed his 
ministers who were not responsible to the legislature, and 
except by refusing supplies, the latter could do little to 
influence the executive. Besides this there were the racial 
iealousies between the British and French Canadians, especially 
in Lower Canada. In 1837 a rebellion broke out which 
was suppressed without much difficulty. Parliament thereupon 
suspended the constitution of Canada, and Lord Durham was 
sent in 1838 as High Commissioner to devise a settlement. 
The leaders of the rebellion were banished, and Lord Durham 
prepared a report on the subject of the future government of 
Canada His treatment of the conspirators was denounced in 
Parliament, and he was recalled. His recommendations were 
nevertheless embodied in the Canada Bill of 1840 which 
re-united the two provinces under one legislature to which the 
executive was responsible. This wise measure soon secured 
the loyalty of the colonists. > 

4. Asiatic Affairs (1 833-1 843).-The growth of the 
British Empire in the East was marked by troubles in China, 
India, and Afghanistan. The Chinese Government wished to 
stop the importation of opium from India, and a war, in which 
the Chinese were easily defeated, was the unhappy reply of the 
English to the attempt of China to put down a trade harmful to 
her people. China was compelled to allow tacitly the import 
of the baneful drug, to cede Hong-kong, and to open five of 
her ports to British trade (1842). < 

In India the methods of the progress of British influence 
can be viewed with more satisfaction. Under a succession of 



472 



Victoria. 



able viceroys British prestige steadily increased. In 1816 the 
Ghoorkas, of Nepaul on the northern frontier, were conquered, 
and in 181 8 the Third Mahratta War was brought to a safe 
conclusion. In 1826 Lower Burmah was annexed, while the 
foundations of the British power in central India were laid. 
In 1833, at the renewal of the East India Company's charter, 
its monopoly of the Indian trade was abolished. 

British expansion in northern India brought about a collision 
with Afghanistan. To meet Russian intrigues in that country, 
the Governor-General, Lord Auckland, in 1839 sent an army 
to depose the Ameer, Dost Mahommed, in favour of the 
English candidate, Shah Soojah. The expedition occupied the 
capital, Cabul, but its position became precarious, and it had to 
retreat through a hostile country. The retreat proved disastrous, 
and the army was annihilated (1842); Lord Ellenborough, 
who succeeded Auckland, reversed his predecessor's policy, and 
proclaimed the policy of non-intervention in Afghan affairs. 
At the same time, to restore British prestige, an expedition was 
sent under General Pollock, which captured Cabul and rescued 
the English prisoners. The country was then evacuated, and 
in 1843 Dost Mahommed was restored. The whole war had 
thus been a blunder of the first magnitude. 

5. The Repeal Movement (1 841-1847.)— The Catholic 
Emancipation Act had been too long delayed to be regarded 
by the Irish as more than an instalment of justice, and Irish 
dissatisfaction found its expression in O'Connell's agitation for 
the repeal of the Act of Union. The fact that Emancipation, 
like all other English concessions to Ireland, had been extorted 
by threats of violence, did not increase the respect of the Irish 
for the courage of the Government, and it was fortunate that 
O'Connell threw himself on the side of pacific methods of 
agitation, and kept down the bolder spirits amongst the Irish, 
known as the " Physical Force Party." With a peasantry 
rendered almost desperate by social distress, and justly 
incensed by a cruel land system, and by the maintenance of an 
alien Church which represented a portion only of the Protestant 
minority, Ireland presented a sad spectacle of English misrule. 



Victoria. 473 

O'Connell had joined the Whigs on his entering Parliament, 
and his great oratorical powers had been enlisted on the side of 
reforms. He combined a deep attachment to the Catholic 
religion with the advocacy of freedom in politics and in trade, 
and he therefore, on the whole, supported the Melbourne 
Ministry. But at the accession of Peel to power in 1841, he 
declared his hostility to the Tory party, and pushed forward 
the Repeal agitation, in the belief that the revocation of the 
Act of Union would strengthen the connection between the two 
countries. The Repeal Association was established, and was 
warmly supported by the " Young Ireland Party," represented 
by the Natio?i newspaper, ably conducted by Gavan Duffy, 
Thomas Davis, and John Dillon. Peel met the agitation by 
threats of coercion, which made O'Connell's policy of con- 
stitutional agitation difficult to uphold against the Physical 
Force section of his followers. Huge meetings were held, at 
which O'Connell, the " Liberator," as his followers called him, 
declared that Home Rule was inevitable. In 1843 O'Connell 
and the leaders of the movement were arrested on a charge of 
conspiracy to sow sedition, and a verdict of condemnation was 
obtained from a packed jury (1844). The verdict was, 
however, reversed on technical grounds by the House of 
Lords. 

O'Connell's health had suffered during the period of im- 
prisonment, and he was seriously alarmed by the spread of 
revolutionary doctrines amongst his followers. He could not 
sanction the appeal to force, and his political influence waned 
as his energy declined. He died in 1847, on his journey to 
Rome, realising that his high hopes had been frustrated, but 
comforted by the love and veneration of his fellow-countrymen. 
His character was drawn in bold outlines, and its defects, his 
tendency to coarse invective and unmeasured declamation, 
shocked his contemporaries ; but these blemishes lay on the 
surface of his nature, and in the hearts of the Irish nation have 
weighed as nothing against his passionate love of the ideals of 
political justice, as he conceived them, and his unswerving 
devotion to the interests of his country. 



474 Victoria. 

6. The Anti-Corn-Law Agitation (1838-1846).— 

During the wars with France (1793-1815) the price of wheat 
had greatly increased, and the farmers and landed classes had 
reaped enormous profits. At the peace the price of wheat fell, 
through the competition of foreign supplies, and in 18 15 the 
Government, under the influence of the agricultural interest, 
had imposed a prohibitive duty, which excluded foreign wheat 
unless the home-grown supply rose above 80^. a quarter. 
This policy was the cause of cruel suffering to the working 
classes, and in 1828 the sliding-scale system was substituted. 
By this the import duty on foreign wheat was lowered as the 
price of English wheat rose, the aim being to keep the price of 
wheat at a level sufficiently high to give the farmer a good rate 
of profits. In other words, the artisan in the towns, whose 
wages were subjected to the influences of competition, was 
compelled to buy the bread on which he spent nearly half his 
income at a higher price in order to support the farmer and 
landlord. The system proved increasingly difficult to maintain, 
and a succession of bad harvests, ranging from 1837-1842, 
made a modification of the corn-law policy imperative. 

In 1838 the Anti-Corn-Law League was founded at Man- 
chester by Cobden, Bright, Villiers, and other free-traders, and 
a great agitation w r as set on foot. The accession to power of 
the Conservatives under Peel, in 1841, seemed to threaten a 
prolongation of the Corn Laws, but, contrary to expectation, 
their abolition was carried by a Ministry largely composed of 
Tory landlords and by a party which had obtained power 
mainly through the support of the landed interest. Cobden 
had entered Parliament in 1841, and in spite of the hostility of 
the majority, his lucid explanation of the doctrine of Free 
Trade made a profound impression, while his arguments 
received practical illustration in the failure of the protective 
system to insure prosperity. The public revenue was diminish- 
ing, and the working classes were suffering from the severe 
depression in trade. In 1842 Peel introduced the income-tax 
as a temporary expedient to tide over a period of difficulty, and 
at the same time he took a step towards the, free Trade 



Victoria. 475 

position by diminishing the duties on over seven hundred im- 
ported articles. The sliding-scale tax on imported wheat was 
retained in spite of the Anti-Corn-Law League, but keen 
observers noted that Peel's policy was in a state of transition, 
which must end in Free Trade. The further removal, in 1845, 
of the duties on raw material alarmed Peel's followers, and led 
Disraeli to declare that a Conservative Government was " an 
organised hypocrisy." Peel's conversion to Free Trade was 
precipitated by the terrible potato famine in Ireland (1845), and 
the prime minister, recognising the futility of the sliding-scale, 
announced his change of opinions to the Cabinet. After a 
ministerial crisis involving Peel's temporary resignation, he 
returned to office pledged to Free Trade, and in 1846 the 
repeal of the Corn Laws was carried. The Conservative Pro- 
tectionists revenged themselves by combining with the Liberals 
on the question of a coercion bill for Ireland, and the rejection 
of the bill led to Peel's resignation. 

7. England and France (1844-1848).— In carrying the 
repeal of the Corn Laws, Peel had sacrificed the fortunes of the 
Conservative party, which he had done so much to create, to 
the wider considerations of national interest, and for nearly 
thirty years, except for two short periods, in 1852 and 1858, 
the Conservatives were excluded from power. The Russell 
Ministry had for its leading members Lord Palmerston as 
foreign secretary, and Lord Grey as colonial secretary. 
Palmerston was pledged to continue the foreign policy of 
Lord Aberdeen, who had directed foreign affairs in Peel's 
Government, but friendly relations with France since 1844 had 
been seriously endangered by the action of Louis Philippe's 
Government. The French king had determined to arrange a 
marriage for Isabella, the young Queen of Spain, which should 
serve the interests of France. With complete disregard of his 
promises to England, that there should be no immediate alliance 
between the royal houses of France and Spain, Louis Philippe 
promoted a marriage between Isabella and her cousin Francisco 
d'Assis, Duke of Cadiz, and at the same time arranged a marriage 
between Isabella's sister and heiress, Louise, and his son, the 



47 6 



Victoria. 



Duke de Montpensier. The French king had reason to hope 
that Isabella's marriage would be fruitless, and that the Spanish 
crown would thus pass to a French prince. 

England was profoundly irritated by this treacherous act on 
the part of her ally, and the friendship with France ceased. 
Louis Philippe, however, was the first to suffer for his shifty 
diplomacy, and, without a supporter in Europe, he was unable 
to meet the impending revolution in France. In 1848 he was 
deposed, and fled to England, while the Second Republic was 
proclaimed. A revolutionary movement swept over Europe, 
but before the end of the year a reaction had set in, and, 
except in the case of France, little effect was produced. 

8. Ireland (1848). — Since 1845 the condition of Ireland 
had gone from bad to worse. In 1846 the potato famine was 
renewed, and in its track came a plague, which swept away 
thousands already enfeebled by starvation. The relief works 
established by the Government were a costly failure. Starvation 
brought men to a state of desperation, and the increase of crime 
was met by the Coercion Act of 1 847 . The landlords aggravated, 
the misery of the unhappy country by clearing their estates of 
tenants who, during the frightful period of distress, could not 
pay rent, and through the poor-rates became a burden on the 
land-owning class. The cruelty of evictions at such a time 
shocked public opinion in England, but nothing was done to 
stop them. As a consequence, the Physical Force Party in 
1848 came to the front, and the Young Ireland Party at- 
tempted a rebellion. Smith O'Brien, Dillon, and Meagher 
raised forces, but the movement was easily crushed, and the 
leaders were transported for life. 

9. The Tractarian Movement (1833- 1850). — In 1833 
a movement had begun within the Established Church which 
was destined to modify profoundly the religious aspect of the 
country. A group of Oxford men, of commanding ability and 
of great religious earnestness, started the Tracts for the Times, 
in which the claims of the National Church to be a part of the 
Catholic Church were drawn out with great eloquence. The 
Reformation was minimised, and members of the Established 



Victoria. 477 

Church, who had been brought up in the Evangelical Pro- 
testantism dominant in the early part of the century, were 
alarmed at being told that their Protestant beliefs were 
erroneous, and that Rome after all had maintained the 
Christian Faith. The High Church position adopted by 
Laud was revived and expounded by John Henry Newman, 
John Keble, Dr. Pusey, and many others. A serious attempt 
was made to realise a Via Media between certain errors 
ascribed by the Tractarians to the Catholic Church and the 
disintegrating tendencies of popular Protestantism. 

The Oxford Movement roused fierce opposition, and a 
crisis was provoked when Newman issued Tract 90, in which 
the Thirty-nine Articles were defended on the ground that they 
did not deny the Catholic doctrines as set forth by the Council 
of Trent, because they were drawn up prior to the Tridentine 
decrees, and might therefore be interpreted in an orthodox 
sense. Newman was denounced as a traitor to the Protestant 
Church. Viewing the disapprobation of the bishops as a 
condemnation of his belief that the doctrines of the Tractarian 
party were the doctrines of the English Church to the exclusion 
of the Low Church interpretation, he resigned his position as a 
clergyman in 1843, and set himself to study closely the doctrines 
of the Catholic Church. The serious flaws in the High Church 
position had been already forced on his unwilling mind by his 
study of the history of the early Church, as well as by the 
conduct of the Protestant authorities, and the result of his 
studies was the conviction that only in the Catholic Church 
could be found the fulness of the doctrines in which he 
believed, and the guarantee of their truth. In 1845 Newman 
was received into the Catholic Church, and his conversion was 
followed by that of many clergy and laity of the Established 
Church. The majority, however, still clung to the High 
Church position, but a series of doctrinal decisions, affecting 
their deepest convictions, drove many of them, including 
Henry Edward Manning, Henry Wilberforce, and William 
George Ward, to submit to the authority of the Catholic 
Church. 



478 Victoria. 

Dr. Pusey remained to organise the shattered forces of the 
Tractarians, and to continue the teaching which has revolu- 
tionised the aspect of Protestantism in England. The result 
has been the spreading outside the borders of the Catholic 
Church of a belief in Catholic doctrines and practices, which 
has raised the tone of religious life in England, and has borne 
fruit in works of charity and devotion. But this has been 
accompanied by the virtual abandonment of the position for 
which Newman had contended; for the party which in 1833 
claimed to be the authoritative exponent of the doctrines of 
the English Church has come to be contented with the humbler 
position of a tolerated " school of thought," and to remain in 
communion with bishops and fellow-Churchmen who repudiate 
the belief in dogma and a sacramental system. 

For English Catholics, the adhesion of a number of 
distinguished converts, trained in the great schools and 
universities, proved a source of strength. In 1850 Pope 
Pius IX. re-established a Catholic hierarchy in England. 
This measure produced a violent outburst of Protestant 
hostility, and Parliament, led by Lord John Russell, the 
premier, passed the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (185 1), for- 
bidding the Catholic bishops to adopt territorial titles; but 
it remained a dead letter from the first, and in 187 1 Mr. 
Gladstone obtained its repeal. 

10. Steam Transport (1 800-1 850). —The early half of 
the nineteenth century was the period in which the germs of 
all the great economic developments of the present day were 
formed. Population, which in 1800 was eight millions, had 
increased by the middle of the century to eighteen millions. 
Side by side with the development had come great changes in 
every direction. In every industry steam-power was enormously 
increasing the productiveness of man's labour, and the appli- 
cation of steam to transport by sea and land, as well as to 
manufactures, was already tending to make the world one vast 
trading community. In 1825 George Stephenson was ap- 
pointed engineer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the 
first line on which goods and passengers were carried by 



Victoria. 479 

steam-power, and this was followed by the construction of 
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway under Stephenson's 
guidance. In 1829 his improved locomotive, the " Rocket," 
made the record journey of twenty-nine miles an hour. The 
opening of the new railway, in 1830, inaugurated the era of 
rapid and cheap transit, and by the middle of the century most 
of the great lines of the present day had been begun. As early 
as 1802 a steamboat had been constructed by Symington, but 
it was not till 18 12 that Henry Bell built the Comet, which ran 
as a passenger steamer on the Clyde. In 1838 Transatlantic 
steam transit began with the Sirius and Great Western. This 
development of facilities for transport led in 1839 to the estab- 
lishment of penny postage, through the strenuous advocacy of 
Rowland Hill, and in 1846 the electric telegraph system was 
established. 

11. Industrial Organisation (1800-1850). — The vast 
industrial changes of this period were unfortunately not with- 
out drawbacks ; and in many cases a bitter feeling was aroused 
by the contrast between the remuneration of the capitalist and 
that of the labourer. Moreover, at the beginning of the century, 
the workman was forbidden by what were called the " Com- 
bination Laws " to combine to get higher wages. By various 
Acts, dating from Edward VI. onwards, it was made a penal 
offence for the artisan to form unions to obtain higher wages 
or shorter hours of labour. In 1824, however, these laws were 
repealed, and trade unions were tacitly allowed, although it 
was not till the Trades Union Act of 1871 that their legal 
status was definitely recognised. This act of justice was un- 
fortunately followed by severe struggles between labour and 
capital, called " strikes," too often marked by acts of violence 
on the parts of the strikers ; but with the spread of a more 
conciliatory spirit amongst employers, and a greater sense of 
responsibility amongst the leaders of the employed, industrial 
warfare, though unhappily still prevalent, has come to be 
regarded as only justifiable when all other means of adjustment 
have failed. 

The position of the working classes during the period was 



480 Victoria. 

also much improved by the Factory Acts, which insisted that 
the artisans should work under conditions which were 
not dangerous to health. In 1802 an Act had ordered that 
children should not work more than twelve hours a day, but it 
had remained a dead letter, and the practice by which the 
workhouses relieved the poor-rates by apprenticing workhouse 
children to manufacturers resulted in practical slavery. The 
evils of employing children became so grave that a movement 
was started for Factory Reform by Robert Owen, Richard 
Oastler, Michael Sadler, and Lord Ashley, better known as the 
Earl of Shaftesbury. In 1833 a Factory Act was passed, 
limiting the hours of labour for children and persons under 
eighteen, but the law was confined to the textile industries, and 
its provisions were to a great extent evaded. In 1840 Lord 
Ashley procured the appointment of a Royal Commission to 
inquire into the subject, and in 1844 a new Act was passed 
reducing the hours of work for children to six and a half, 
and extending other protective provisions to adult workers. 
Dangerous machinery was to be fenced in, factories were to be 
kept in a sanitary condition, and the system of factory 
inspectors was expanded to enforce the law. Subsequent acts 
have extended this policy to all employments to the immense 
advantage of the working classes. 

12. The Great Exhibition (1851).— By the middle of 
the nineteenth century England had asserted her position as 
the greatest manufacturing country in the world. Her in- 
dustries, her factory legislation, her railways and other means 
of transport, set the type to which every industrial community 
must conform. The repeal of the Corn Laws had not as yet 
brought the ruin to the agricultural interest which the opponents 
of the repeal had predicted, and the farmer shared in the 
general prosperity created by cheaper food and consequently 
lower cost of production of other commodities. The great 
improvements in means of transport, in intercommunication, 
together with the vast increase in production caused by in- 
dustrial inventions, diffused an unprecedented prosperity 
throughout the country. It was therefore only fitting that 



Victoria. 481 

Great Britain should invite the nations of the world to a 
friendly rivalry in the arts of peace, and that the Great Inter- 
national Exhibition of 185 1, held in London, should form the 
climax of a period of national progress due largely to the in- 
ternational exchange of commodities. 

13. Fall of the Russell Ministry (1852).— Early in 
185 1 it had become clear that the Ministry could not last much 
longer. It was defeated on a financial question in the Com- 
mons, and only the refusal of the Peelite Conservatives 1 to 
work with the Protectionist Conservatives enabled Russell to 
retain power. A crisis was produced by Palmerston's action 
with reference to France. The spectre of communism had 
alarmed the French middle classes, and Louis Napoleon, 
nephew of the great emperor, took advantage of this to get 
himself elected President of the Republic (1848). In 185 1, in 
defiance of his oath to the constitution, Napoleon carried out 
a coup d'etat, and established a military despotism. His action 
was, however, ratified by a vote of the French people, and he 
became emperor, as Napoleon III. 

Palmerston, without consulting the other ministers, expressed 
to the French ambassador in London his concurrence with 
Napoleon's action. Lord John Russell at once demanded an 
explanation of this indiscreet action, and, as his defence was 
Linsatisfactory, Palmerston was dismissed. The Ministry did 
lot long survive, and, mainly through Palmerston's action, the 
Government was defeated over a Militia Bill, and at once 
resigned. 

CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Chartist riots 1839. 

Penny Post established 1839. 

First Afghan War 1838-1842. 

First Chinese War 1839-1842. ' 

Newman becomes a Catholic ...... 1845. 

Repeal of the Corn Laws 1846. 

Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy . . 1850. 

Ecclesiastical Titles Bill 1851. 

Great Exhibition 1851. 

1 Sir Robert Peel had died in 1850. 

2 I 



INDIA. 

English Miles 
o too 200 joo 400 500 600 




Walker & Cockerell sc. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

VICTORIA (1837-1901). 

{2) Lord Derby, Lord Aberdeen, and Lord Palmerston 
(1852-1865). 

1. The Derby and Aberdeen Ministries (1852). — The 
Liberal Whig Ministry had been overthrown by a coalition 
between the Conservatives and a number of malcontent Whigs, 
led by Palmerston. But the Conservatives, since 1846, had 
split into two factions over the question of Protection, and 
the Protectionist Conservatives, led by Lord Derby (formerly 
Lord Stanley) and by Disraeli, were bitterly hostile to the 
Peelite Conservatives led by Lord Aberdeen and Gladstone. 
Thus both parties, Liberal and Conservative, were divided 
by internal animosities. Unfortunately, Sir Robert Peel 
had died, in 1850, after a fall from his horse, and the most 
commanding figure in the politics of the day had been 
removed. 

The new Ministry was composed of the Protectionist Con- 
servatives, with Derby as premier and Disraeli as chancellor 
of the exchequer. But the Ministry did not dare to attack 
the Free Trade settlement of 1846, and was, in fact, compelled 
to accept a motion proposed by Villiers, affirming the principle 
of Free Trade. This did not, however, save it, for the Budget, 
prepared by Disraeli, was severely criticised by Gladstone, 
and on a division, the Government was defeated and at once 
resigned. 

The Queen now sent for the Peelite, Lord Aberdeen, and 
483 



484 Victoria. 

a junction was formed between the Peelites and the Whigs. 
Aberdeen became prime minister, Palmerston home secre- 
tary, Russell foreign secretary, and Gladstone chancellor 
of the exchequer. The Ministry contained a number of 
brilliant names, but the personal divergences of its leading 
members negatived the prospect of vigorous and united 
action. 

2. The Outbreak of the Crimean War (1854). — 
Russian prestige in Eastern Europe had been strengthened 
after the battle of Navarino by Lord Goderich's desertion of 
Canning's policy, and the settlement of the question of Greek 
independence was therefore mainly due to the Tsar, Nicholas I. 
During the revolutionary crisis of 1848, Nicholas appeared as 
the champion of the rights of sovereigns, and by his armed 
intervention helped Austria to defeat the Hungarian rebels, 
and Turkey to put down a revolution in her vassal de- 
pendencies, Moldavia and Wallachia. But neither England 
nor France could afford to see Russia all-powerful at Con- 
stantinople. When, therefore, Nicholas I. demanded that 
Turkey should recognise his protectorate over the Greek 
Christians in the Turkish dominions, and should guarantee 
the claims of the Greek Church with reference to the Holy 
places, the Sultan found himself supported in his refusal by 
England and France. Russian troops invaded Moldavia and 
Wallachia (1853), whereupon England and France signed a 
treaty with Turkey, and in 1854 declared war against 
Russia. 

The Government of Lord Aberdeen had drifted into a war 
which might possibly have been avoided if the Tsar had been 
distinctly warned that an attack on Turkey would be treated 
as a casus belli. But the Cabinet was unfortunately weakened 
by dissensions, and in the end Palmerston and the party of 
action forced Aberdeen to declare war. The result was that 
England was unprepared for hostilities, and a prolonged and 
costly struggle followed, which might have been avoided by 
timely firmness, and certainly would have been shortened by 
adequate preparations. 



486 Victoria. 

3. The Invasion of the Crimea (1854). — Even before 
the arrival of the Anglo-French armies at Varna, Turkey had 
proved herself strong enough to resist the attack of Russia. The 
Russian forces crossed the Danube and laid siege to Silistria ; 
but the siege was begun too late, and when Austria threatened 
armed intervention unless the Russian troops were with- 
drawn from the Danubian Principalities, the Tsar was com- 
pelled to yield. The Russian attack on Turkey had thus 
failed completely. Unfortunately the war spirit in England 
and France was now thoroughly roused, and demands were 
addressed to the Tsar, which he absolutely refused. The 
allied armies under Lord Raglan and St. Arnaud were ordered 
to make a descent on the Crimea with the object of capturing 
Sebastopol, the head-quarters of Russia's power in the Black 
Sea. In September the allies disembarked thirty miles north 
of Sebastopol, and a victory was won at Alma over the Russians 
under Menschikoff, who tried to stop the allies on their march 
south. The defeat inflicted on the Russians was severe, but 
the pursuit was not followed up, and Menschikoff was able to 
retreat behind the lines of Sebastopol. Four days later he led 
the bulk of his army into the interior of the Crimea, where he 
hoped to be reinforced by troops from the north. Meanwhile 
the allies marching round the harbour of Sebastopol, took up 
a position to the south of the town. The French occupied the 
western half of the allied lines, with the harbour of Kasatch 
at their extreme end, while the English held the position to the 
east with the harbour of Balaclava behind them. 

4. The Siege of Sebastopol (1 854-1 855). — The cam- 
paign so far had been mismanaged. Lord Raglan, after the 
battle of Alma, had been eager to attack Sebastopol from the 
north, and if this had been attempted the town would probably 
have fallen. But he allowed himself to be overruled by St. 
Arnaud, and the flanking march, which placed the allies at the 
south of the town, was the result. A long and costly siege was 
therefore undertaken, because divided counsels had prevented 
vigorous action. Moreover, the Russians within Sebastopol, 
under the leadership of Korniloff and Todleben, had so greatly 



Victoria. 487 

strengthened the defences of the town, that a bombardment 
by land and sea proved unsuccessful. Menschikoff also had 
taken advantage of the delay to obtain reinforcements, and 
on October 25, 1854, he attacked the English position at 
Balaclava, which was weakly held by a small force, chiefly 
cavalry. The battle was made memorable by two astonishing 
exploits on the part of the British cavalry. Three hundred 
horsemen of the Heavy Brigade, led by General Scarlett, 
charged a body of Russian cavalry almost ten times their 
number, and after nearly cutting their way single-handed 
through the enemy, were able, when reinforced, to drive the 
Russians into flight. This feat was, however, eclipsed by the 
famous charge of the Light Brigade. Lord Lucan, who com- 
manded the cavalry, misinterpreting the order of Lord Raglan 
to recover some guns captured by the Russians from the Turks, 
sent the Light Brigade, under Lord Cardigan, to attack a 
Russian battery situated at the end of a valley two miles long, 
on the slopes of which artillery and infantry were posted. The 
Light Brigade were thus sent into a veritable death-trap ; but 
without a moment's hesitation the order was obeyed, and the 
heroic horsemen, after sweeping up to and even beyond the 
Russian battery, fought their way back to their original position. 
The sacrifice Of men caused by the terrible mistake is seen 
in the fact that 247 were killed or wounded. But apart from 
these heroic deeds the battle of Balaclava was a failure, for 
the Russians retained the positions they had seized, and the 
arrival of reinforcements enabled Menschikoff to threaten to 
cut the fortified lines of the allies. Ten ' days after the fight 
at Balaclava, the Russians attacked the British position on 
the heights of Inkerman, but after a fierce hand-to-hand 
encounter, the British, supported by the French, repulsed the 
enemy. 

The operations in the Crimea had now been in progress 
for over two months, and beyond demonstrating the splendid 
courage of the British troops, little had been done to achieve 
the object of the campaign. Divided counsels had paralysed 
the actions of the allies from the first, and neither Lord Raglan 



488 Victoria. 

nor Marshal Canrobert, the successor of St. Arnaud, had shown 
capacity for conducting operations on a large scale. At the 
battle of Alma, Raglan had only escaped capture through a 
blunder on the part of the enemy, and the repulse of the 
Russians at Inkerman was due more to the tenacity of the 
rank and file than to the tactics of the British and French 
generals. The advent of an unusually severe winter, and the 
partial breakdown of the commissariat arrangements, inflicted 
terrible hardships on the troops. By January, 1855, the British 
army had been reduced from 25,000 to 11,000. Over 8000 
deaths had been caused by cholera or by exposure and in- 
sufficient food, and the rate of mortality in the military hospitals 
rose in some cases to 50 per cent. The sufferings of the 
troops were mainly due to the fact that the British War Office 
had contemplated, not a campaign, but a cotip de mam against 
Sebastopol, and, with the usual want of elasticity characteristic 
of bureaucratic methods, had failed completely to adapt its 
measures to the altered conditions. The result was that when 
the state of affairs in the Crimea was revealed by the news- 
papers, public indignation demanded the resignation of the 
prime minister, Lord Aberdeen, and of the secretary of 
war, the Duke of Newcastle. In January, 1855, Roebuck 
moved a resolution in the Commons for a Select Committee 
to inquire into the conduct of the war. The motion was 
carried by a large majority, and the Aberdeen Ministry 
resigned. 

5. The End of the War (1855). — After in vain inviting 
Lord Derby and then Lord John Russell to form an administra- 
tion, the Queen was forced to summon Lord Palmerston to 
supreme power, in spite of the deep distrust and dislike with 
which she regarded him. Palmerston, however, was designated 
by the country at large as the only statesmen capable of 
meeting the crisis, and the adhesion of Russell and his followers 
enabled the prime minister to form a strong and united Whig 
Ministry. The result was seen in vigorous measures to bring 
the war to a close, and in the improvements in commissariat, 
transport, and hospital arrangements at the front. A railway 



Victoria. 489 

was constructed from the harbour of Balaclava to the British 
lines, and the labours of Miss Florence Nightingale, supported 
by the home Government, reduced the mortality in the hospital 
to its normal rate. 

Early in 1855 the allies, already strongly reinforced from 
England and France, were joined by a force of Sardinian 
troops sent by the able and ambitious Victor Emmanuel, who 
was anxious to assert the position of Sardinia as a European 
Power. In spite of these accessions of strength to the besiegers, 
Sebastopol showed no signs of surrender, and the defences con- 
structed by Todleben seemed too strong to be taken by assault. 
In April a bombardment of the town produced no result, 
and the general assault on June 18 was repulsed. Shortly 
after this defeat Lord Raglan died, and was succeeded by 
General Simpson. Still, notwithstanding their repeated failures, 
the allied armies were slowly closing in on Sebastopol, and in 
September the French assaulted and captured Malakoff Hill, 
which commanded the Russian entrenchments. This rendered 
the fall of Sebastopol inevitable, and the Russian garrison 
therefore withdrew across the harbour, and the town was 
occupied by the allies (September 8). 

Meanwhile negotiations had been in progress, and in 
March, 1856, the Peace of Paris was signed. By the treaty 
the Black Sea was declared neutral, and the warships of all 
nations were excluded from it. Russia agreed not to fortify 
Sebastopol, and Turkey made promises, which proved illusory, 
of better treatment for her Christian subjects. In 1870 Russia 
took advantage of the Franco-German War to repudiate those 
clauses of the Treaty of Paris, which prevented her from 
building fortresses and from keeping a war fleet on the Black 
Sea. The Liberal Ministry then in power was compelled to 
condone this breach of treaty obligations in return for a 
recognition by Russia of the principle of International Law, 
that the right to release a State from its obligations belongs to 
those States which are parties to the original treaty. 

6. The Indian Mutiny (1857-1859). — In 1857 the 
British rule in India was threatened with overwhelming disaster. 



49° Victoria. 

Many causes bad combined to spread discontent amongst the 
native population, and it was inevitable that the disaffection 
should be reflected amongst the Sepoys, who formed the bulk 
of the army. The spread of British rule had caused the dis- 
appearance of many native States and the overthrow of the 
ancient royal and aristocratic families, which for centuries had 
been the objects of native loyalty. Revolutionary changes 
had also been made in the system of land tenure, which had 
alienated the most influential classes in the country. Further, 
there is said to have been a general belief in a prophecy that 
the rule of the East Indian Company would cease one 
hundred years from the victory of Plassey, and the century 
had now been completed. 

Matters were brought to a crisis by the widespread fear of 
the native troops that their religious beliefs and practices were 
threatened. Alterations had been made in the arming of the 
troops, and for the new Enfield rifle a special cartridge had 
been invented, which required to be greased. The rumour 
spread that the grease was made from the fat of hogs and cows, 
and as the Mahommedans were forbidden to touch the former, 
while the cow to the Hindoos was a sacred animal, the two 
largest religious sections of the Sepoys were thrown into a state 
of violent suspicion which the official denials were powerless to 
allay. 

The Mutiny broke out in its first serious form at Meerut, 
the great military station, forty miles from Delhi, where the 
Sepoy troops, after killing a number of British officers and 
ladies, marched on Delhi and proclaimed as their leader the 
old King of Delhi, Bahadur Shah, a descendant of the Moguls. 
At Cawnpore the mutineers were headed by the infamous Nana 
Sahib ; while at Lucknow, the capital of the recently annexed 
kingdom of Oude, the natives rallied round their ex-king. The 
movement rapidly spread to other military centres, and within 
a month the native regiments at forty stations were in rebellion. 
Everywhere the revolt was marked by the same hideous 
features, the indiscriminate murder of Europeans, men, women, 
and children, although happily there were not a few. cases in 



Victoria. 491 

which Europeans owed their preservation to the fidelity of their 
native servants or to the protection of native landowners. On 
the whole the rebellion was a military one, from which the 
native population held aloof, and the mutiny was mainly con- 
fined to the district stretching from Upper Bengal to the 
Punjab — that is to the greater part of northern India. It was 
also, but to a less extent, felt in central India, and in many 
cases the forces of the native princes sooner or later joined the 
rebels. On the other hand, Hyderabad remained loyal under 
the Nizam's able minister, Salar Jung, and the native troops 
in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies were practically un- 
touched. Lower Bengal, the Punjab and Nepaul, were free 
from revolt, and the fact that the disaffected centres were thus 
surrounded by loyal districts proved in the end highly 
advantageous to the Government. 

For the moment, however, the prospects of British rule 
looked dark indeed. Delhi had fallen, and the British garrison 
and residents there had been massacred. Cawnpore, after 
holding out for a month, surrendered to Nana Sahib under 
a promise of a safe passage for the British to Allahabad ; but 
the promise was immediately disregarded, and men, women, 
and children, were brutally butchered. Lucknow, with a small 
garrison, still held out under Sir Henry Lawrence, and after his 
death under General Inglis, against an enemy numbering 
50,000. 

Meanwhile Lord Canning, the Governor-General, had sum- 
moned all the available troops from the other Presidencies 
to form an army of relief for the besieged garrisons. The fort 
of Allahabad was the first to be relieved, and a force under 
General Havelock, after capturing Cawnpore, moved on to the 
relief of Lucknow, which was achieved after the heroic garrison 
had maintained itself for eighty-seven days. At the other 
extreme of the revolted districts the cause of British rule in 
India was upheld with equal success. The peaceful condition 
of the Punjab under the rule of Sir John Lawrence, the brother 
of Henry Lawrence, made it possible to send troops and siege- 
guns to reinforce the army under General Wilson, which was 



49 2 Victoria. 

attempting the capture of Delhi against overwhelming difficulties. 
Lawrence even ventured to throw himself on the loyalty of the 
Sikhs and to send from the Punjab all the British troops he had 
under the command of John Nicholson. This daring measure 
was justified by its success, both in the Punjab and at the front, 
and after desperate and prolonged fighting Delhi was captured 
(September, 1857). Shortly after Sir Colin Campbell arrived 
as commander-in-chief, with reinforcements from England, 
and a series of brilliant military movements on his part crushed 
the rebels outside Cawnpore and Lucknow. Early in 1858 an 
army from the Bombay Presidency, under Sir Hugh Rose, put 
down the rebellion in the Mahratta districts. 

The Indian Mutiny ended the rule of the East India 
Company. In 1858 an Act was passed transferring the 
government of India to the Crown. A Proclamation was 
issued announcing the fact that two hundred million Indians 
had been placed under the direct rule of the Crown. As 
originally drafted it seemed to the Queen too harsh in tone, 
and through her intervention it was modified, and the right of 
her Indian subjects to follow their own religion was expressly 
recognised. " Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of 
Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of 
religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose 
our convictions on any of our subjects." 

7. The Fall of Palmerston's Ministry (1858).— The 
Indian Mutiny had not been the only cause of trouble in Asia 
at this period. In 1856 England was involved in the second 
Chinese War, and also in a quarrel with Persia, and Palmerston 
was bitterly attacked in Parliament by the Peelite and Derby 
Conservatives, as well as by the malcontent Whigs under 
Russell, who had quitted the Ministry in 1855. Matters 
came to a crisis in 1858, when Palmerston tried to pass the 
Conspiracy to Murder Bill, a measure caused by the recent 
attempt of a refugee, Orsini, to murder the Emperor Napoleon 
III. by means of an explosive bomb. Palmerston was accused 
of truckling to the French, and he resigned when the Bill was 
rejected. The Queen then sent for Lord Derby, who formed 



Victoria. 493 

an administration with Disraeli as chancellor of the exchequer. 
The new Government at once brought forward the Reform 
Bill to extend the franchise to the ^10 householders in the 
counties, and also to holders of ^10 a year in Government 
funds, £60 in the savings bank, university graduates, ministers 
of religion, doctors, and lawyers. These provisions were 
denounced by the Opposition as " fancy franchises," and the 
Government was defeated and resigned. After some hesitation 
the Queen was again compelled to call on Palmerston to form 
a Cabinet. In the new Ministry Gladstone became chancellor 
of the exchequer, and Russell secretary for foreign affairs. 
Gladstone thus finally severed his connection with the Con- 
servatives. 

8. Continental Politics (1 859-1 864).— The revival of 
the French Empire by Napoleon III. had been from the first a 
constant menace to the tranquillity of Europe. The emperor 
in his youth had associated himself with revolutionary societies 
of the most dangerous type, and he was never able to shake 
himself free from the fear of the vengeance of his early asso- 
ciates. Added to this, the coup d'etat of 1851 had been 
achieved by treachery and bloodshed, and he knew well that 
he could only retain his position by brilliant military and 
diplomatic successes abroad, in which the French people 
might find compensation for the destruction of their liberties. 
For this purpose he had joined in the Crimean War, and had 
cemented the alliance with England by a visit to the Queen in 
1855. The Queen's strong sense of justice would not allow 
her to condone the base measures by which he had obtained 
power, and although she yielded to the emperor's personal 
charm of manner, and established a friendly intercourse between 
the two Courts, she remained shrewdly suspicious of his ulterior 
designs. How little depth there was in the much lauded 
entente cordiale between the two countries was seen in 1858, 
when Napoleon allowed a body of French colonels to address 
him in language which directly threatened England, and the 
nation replied by the renewal of the great Volunteer movement 
of the early days of the century. 



494 Victoria. 

In 1859 Napoleon was drawn into a war with Austria on 
behalf of Sardinia. Victor Emmanuel and his able minister, 
Cavour, had dexterously raised the prestige of Sardinia, and 
gained the friendship of England and France, by intervening 
in the Crimean War, and they now took another step towards 
the creation of a united Italy by an alliance with France 
against Austria. A secret treaty was signed by which Lom- 
bardy and Venetia were to be annexed to Sardinia as the 
Kingdom . of North Italy, and French support was to be 
rewarded by the cession of Savoy and Nice. In a short 
campaign the allies defeated the Austrians at Magenta and 
Solferino ; but Napoleon, realising that a united Italy would be 
a danger to France, and would involve him in a quarrel with 
Pope Pius IX., suddenly withdrew from the war by the Peace 
of Villafranca (1859). By this Lombardy was to be ceded to 
Sardinia, but Venetia was to be retained by Austria. 

Victor Emmanuel nominally accepted the terms, and could 
afford to give up for a time the hope of possessing Venetia, 
because in other directions his astute policy was successful. 
The rulers of Tuscany, Parma, and Modena, had been ex- 
pelled by popular risings, and together with Bologna, a part of 
the States of the Church, were now administered by commis- 
sioners in the name of Sardinia. A European congress 
sanctioned* their annexation to Sardinia, and, largely through 
the support of Lord Palmerston, the North Italian kingdom 
was founded. This was followed by a revolution fomented in 
Naples and Sicily by Garibaldi, which led to the deposition of 
the Bourbon king, Francis II., and the annexation of South 
Italy and Sicily to the northern kingdom. In 1861 Victor 
Emmanuel was proclaimed King of Italy "by the grace of 
God and the will of the nation." All Italy, except Rome and 
Venetia, now acknowledged his rule. 

This triumph for the cause of Italian unity reacted on 
Germany, and stimulated the movement in favour of German 
unity, which had been checked in 1848. In 1861 William I. 
had become King of Prussia, and with the support of the great 
Prussian statesman, Bismarck, the policy was begun by which 



Victoria. 495 

Prussia was to become the dominant power in Germany. 
Under the guidance of Von Moltke and Von Roon the Prussian 
army was reorganised and armed with the latest modern 
weapons, and its efficiency was seen when Prussia, in alliance 
with Austria, forcibly ejected the authority of the King of 
Denmark from the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein (1864). 

9. Internal Affairs (1 861 -1865).— In 1861 the death of 
the Prince Consort, at the early age of forty-two, inflicted on 
the Queen a loss which she mourned with the most poignant 
grief. There was, moreover, in her sorrow an element of 
bitterness caused by the knowledge that her belief in her 
husband's great qualities had not been shared altogether by her 
subjects. Possibly they had been too ready to suspect and 
resent the sympathy for German aspirations and German 
culture which the Prince undoubtedly showed. Certainly the 
Prince had been very cruelly and unreasonably attacked during 
the early days of the Crimean War, and the slanders against 
her beloved husband had wounded the Queen most deeply. 
There can be indeed no doubt that the Prince earnestly 
desired the welfare and power of his adopted country, and the 
last act of his life showed the political sagacity and the coolness 
of judgment with which he viewed affairs of State. 

In 1 861 the Southern States seceded from the Union, and 
set up the Confederate States of America. The secession was 
caused by dislike of the encroachments of the Federal authority 
on the autonomy of the individual States, and also by the 
question of the abolition of slavery. English sympathy was 
largely in favour of the Southern States, and this, together with 
the fact that the civil war led to the blockade of the southern 
coasts, which cut off. the supply of the raw cotton necessary 
for the Lancashire mills, created a state of tension between 
England and the Federal Government. The North also com- 
plained that England violated her duties as a neutral by 
allowing vessels built and fitted out in her ports to be used as 
privateers by the Confederates. Matters were brought to a 
crisis in 1861, when a Federal cruiser stopped a British ship, 
the Trent, and seized two Confederate envoys who were on 



496 Victoria. 

board. The news of this roused the war feeling in England, 
and Lord Palmerston prepared to address a peremptory 
demand to the Federal Government. The Queen, at the 
Prince Consort's urgent suggestion, obtained a revision of the 
diplomatic note in a conciliatory sense which made it easy for 
the United States to give way. A war fraught with momentous 
consequences was thus happily averted by the calm foresight 
of the dying Prince. No greater service could have been 
rendered to the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

The four last years of Palmerston' s Ministry were un- 
eventful. Apart from the cotton famine caused by the 
American Civil War, which inflicted great suffering on the 
Lancashire artisans from 1861-1863, the period was one of 
internal prosperity. The brilliant financial genius of Gladstone 
placed the national revenue on a sound basis, and the com- 
mercial treaty with France, signed in i860, stimulated inter- 
national trade. Except, however, for measures of financial 
reform, no constitutional alterations were attempted. Lord 
Palmerston had no sympathy with democratic changes, and 
growing prosperity kept political questions in the background. 
The death of Lord Palmerston in 1865, after nearly sixty years 
spent in the public service, began a new stage in the constitu- 
tional development of the nation. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Outbreak of the Crimean War r854. 

Resignation of Lord Aberdeen I 855- 

Fall of Sebastopol 1855. 

Indian Mutiny 1857-58. 

Death of the Prince Consort 1861. 

Death of Lord Palmerston 1865. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

VICTORIA (1837-1901). 
(3) The Growth of Imperial Patriotism (1865-1901). 

1. The Derby-Disraeli Ministry (1866-1868). — The 

position of prime minister on the death of Palmerston in 1865 
was filled for eight months by Lord Russell ; but the attempt 
of the Ministry to push through Parliament an ill-considered 
Reform Bill was defeated, and Russell resigned. In spite of 
the fact that the Liberals were in a majority in the Commons, 
Lord Derby undertook to form an administration with Disraeli 
as leader of the Commons and chancellor of the exchequer- 
The problem of Reform was not allowed to rest, and the 
threatening attitude of the unenfranchised classes forced 
Disraeli to take up the question. In 1867 he introduced a 
Reform Bill which lowered the property qualification for 
exercising the franchise, and as a check on democratic 
tendencies he revived the " fancy franchises " which he had 
proposed in 1858. These, however, he was compelled to 
drop, and the Bill, as it was passed, went even beyond Lord 
Russell's scheme in extending the franchise. Except the 
agricultural labourer, nearly every class was now given the 
right to vote. 

The foreign policy of the Conservative Government aimed 
at the preservation of peace. The only measure of war was the 
successful punitive expedition against Abyssinia, which, under 
Sir Robert Napier, captured the capital, Magdala, and released 
the European prisoners whom King Theodore had seized 
(1868). On the Continent the year 1866 was marked by an 

497 2 K 



498 Victoria. 

alteration of the balance of power in Germany. Prussia and 
Austria, as Bismarck intended, quarrelled over the settlement 
of the Schleswig-Holstein question, and war followed. The 
downfall of Austria was swift and decisive. In seven weeks 
the Austrian allies in Germany were crushed, Bohemia was 
invaded, and the Austrian army was defeated at Sadowa. By 
the Peace of Prague Austria withdrew from interference in 
Germany and Prussian predominance was recognised. Prussia 
annexed Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Nassau, and other provinces, 
and a North German Confederation was formed under her 
presidency. Concurrently with Prussia, Victor Emmanuel had 
also attacked Austria, but had sustained reverses both by sea 
and land. Nevertheless, the benevolence of his ally, Prussia, 
obtained for the Italian king the cession of Venetia by Austria, 
which he had been unable to win by force of arms. 

Of recent years Ireland had been in a disturbed state, and 
a secret organisation, the Fenian Brotherhood, planned a 
rebellion. The movement was a complete fiasco, but it con- 
centrated the attention of English statesmen on the serious 
condition of Ireland. In 1868 Gladstone carried a motion in 
favour of the disestablishment of the Protestant Church of 
Ireland, and Disraeli, who had succeeded Lord Derby as prime 
minister in February, 1868, advised the queen to dissolve 
Parliament as soon as the business of the session was com- 
pleted. At the election the Liberals obtained a majority of 
one hundred and seventeen. 

2. Gladstone's Irish Policy (1869-1870). — Gladstone's 
first Ministry was rendered memorable by the carrying out of a 
legislative programme of great comprehensiveness. In 1869 
the Act for the Disestablishment of the Irish Church was 
passed. The measure itself was altogether distasteful to the 
Queen, but, recognising that Gladstone had the support of the 
majority of the nation, she wisely surrendered her own pre- 
dilections. Thus it was mainly through her personal interven- 
tion on behalf of the measure that the hostility of the House of 
Lords was disarmed, and a dangerous collision between the two 
branches of the Legislature was averted. By the Act the 



Victoria. 499 

Church of the Protestant minority in Ireland ceased to enjoy a 
privileged position, and part of its endowments, after providing 
for the life interests of existing incumbents and officials, was 
retained by the State as a fund to be employed for charitable 
purposes as the occasion arose. 

Closely connected with Gladstone's Church policy was the 
Irish Land Act of 1870, by which the outgoing tenant of a 
farm was given the right to be compensated by the landlord 
for the value of the improvements he had made during his 
tenancy, provided that he was not ejected for non-payment of 
rent. To facilitate the creation of a system of peasant pro- 
prietorship, the Government was empowered to make loans to 
the tenants who, with the consent of their landlords, wished to 
buy their holdings. The Act was undoubtedly an encroach- 
ment on the strict legal rights of the landlords, but it was 
dictated by the needs of internal peace, and it was primarily 
aimed at the prevention of a dangerous agrarian agitation which 
might have proved ruinous to the landlord interest. 

3. Educational Measures (1870-1871). — After dealing 
with Ireland, the Liberal party proceeded to carry through 
Parliament important measures with reference to Great Britain. 
In 1870 Forster's Elementary Education Act was passed, by 
which Board Schools were set up under the management of 
boards of managers elected by the ratepayers. The existing 
Voluntary Schools were recognised and subsidised by the State, 
and subjected to Government inspection, but a stringent 
"conscience clause" was enacted for the protection of the 
religious beliefs of those children who attended the school of 
a religious body to which they did not belong. In the Board 
Schools, by the " Cowper-Temple Clause " of the Act, it was 
ordered that the Bible should be taught, but without comment 
of a dogmatic character on the part of the teacher. The 
system of "undenominational teaching," as it is called, was 
thus established. Attendance at school was compulsory, and 
the cost of education was borne partly by the parents and 
partly by the State. In the case of the Voluntary Schools much 
of the expense was eventually thrown on the subscribers to 



500 Victoria. 

their maintenance, and a heavy burden was thus imposed on 
them, which in the case of Catholics was severely felt. 

In 187 1 another aspect of education was affected by the 
abolition of religious tests at the Universities. For the future, 
assent to the Thirty-nine Articles was not to be demanded of 
those who proceeded to degrees or obtained fellowships other 
than clerical at Oxford or Cambridge. Advantage of this con- 
cession was not taken by Catholics till 1895, when the Holy 
See authorised the presence of Catholics at the Universities on 
condition that suitable provision was made for safeguarding 
their religious convictions. 

4. External Affairs (1870-1872). — In 1870 a cause of 
serious friction with the United States was removed by the 
Geneva Arbitration. During the Civil War ships had been 
built in English ports and sold to the Confederates. Several 
of these, the Alabama especially, had done great damage to the 
commerce of the Northern States, and after the war the United 
States demanded compensation. A long and dangerous con- 
troversy followed, which was ended by the points at issue being 
submitted to a Court of Arbitration sitting at Geneva. By the 
preliminary Treaty of Washington, Great Britain had virtually 
conceded the principles for which the United States contended, 
and it therefore only remained for the Court to assess the 
compensation. This was fixed at three million pounds (1872). 

In 1870 the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War was 
brought about by Bismarck's astute, but unscrupulous, manage- 
ment of a quarrel between France and Prussia on the subject 
of the candidature of a Prussian prince to the Spanish throne. 
The rule of Napoleon III. had been weakened by internal and 
external events, and Bismarck realised that no better opportunity 
could be expected for cementing the fabric of German unity 
than a successful war against France. The crisis was, therefore, 
manipulated so as to rouse the war party in Germany and 
France to the highest pitch of excitement, and Napoleon, 
against his will, was forced by popular pressure to declare war. 
The French armies, badly led and organised, were no match 
for the splendidly trained armies of Prussia, and, contrary to 



Victoria. 501 

French hopes, the Southern States of Germany, hostile to 
Prussia in 1866, now joined her against France. In a few 
weeks a series of crushing defeats led to the overthrow of the 
French Empire and the establishment of the French Republic. 
In January, 187 1, William, King of Prussia, was proclaimed 
emperor and head of the new German Empire. The unity of 
Germany under the supremacy of Prussia, the lifelong aim of 
Bismarck and his colleagues, was thus achieved. After the fall 
of Paris the Peace of Frankfort was signed, by which France 
surrendered Alsace and the greater part of Lorraine, and 
paid a large war indemnity (187 1). 

5. The Fall of the Gladstone Ministry (1874).— 
Sweeping legislative changes continued throughout Gladstone's 
period of power. In 1871 the army was reorganised on the 
Short Service System, and the practice of purchasing commis- 
sions was abolished. In 1872 the Ballot Act was passed. 
This secured the secrecy of voting at elections, and thus 
tended to prevent undue influence by bribery or intimidation. 
By the Judicature Act of 1873 the ancient courts of law, which 
worked independently of one another, were united in one 
Supreme Court of Judicature, of which henceforth they formed 
divisions. A single Court of Appeal was also established. 

The radical changes wrought by Gladstone's Ministry 
necessarily roused hostility amongst the classes which were 
injuriously affected by them, and outside their ranks there was 
a widespread feeling that the time for a pause had come. 
When, therefore, Parliament was dissolved in 1874, the Con- 
servatives obtained a large majority, and the Gladstone 
Cabinet resigned. Disraeli became prime minister, with Lord 
Derby as foreign secretary, Sir Stafford Northcote chancellor 
of the exchequer, and Lord Salisbury secretary for India. 

6. The Eastern Question (1875- 1878). — The unpopu- 
larity of the late Government had been partly caused by the 
fact that in foreign affairs it had not pursued a policy likely to 
increase the prestige of Great Britain. The Conservatives 
accused the Liberals of combining a too marked adhesion to 
the principle of non-intervention on the Continent with a 



5<D2 Victoria. 

programme of domestic legislation which had harassed every 
interest and trade. Disraeli's Ministry therefore necessarily 
aimed at a spirited foreign policy and domestic legislation of 
an unambitious character. Disraeli himself was not like his 
rival, Gladstone, a statesman who delighted in dealing with 
intricate problems of constructive legislation ; nor could he 
hope to emulate the Liberal chieftain's financial reforms, which 
in six years had reduced the National Debt by ^26,000,000, 
and had lowered the income-tax to threepence in the pound. 
But he excelled in the arts of adroit party management, and he 
had succeeded in educating his party out of the obsolete tenets 
of aristocratic Toryism. With profound sagacity, he grasped 
the full meaning of the imperial position of Great Britain, and 
he never failed to keep before the country the high destiny 
which the consolidation of the British Empire implied. Hence 
in 1875 Disraeli seized the opportunity afforded by the in- 
solvency of the Khedive of Egypt, to purchase from him a 
controlling influence over the Suez Canal, and in 1877 tne 
British hold on India was emphasised by the Queen's assump- 
tion of the title of Empress of India. 

In 1877 the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War brought 
Great Britain to the brink of a war with the Tsar. The 
Russian attack on Turkey had as its pretext the outrageous 
treatment of Bulgarian Christians by the Turks. It would have 
been impossible for Great Britain to interfere against Russia 
had the latter confined herself to freeing the Christian popula- 
tions in the Balkan district. But when the Russian armies, 
after a prolonged resistance on the part of the Turks, advanced 
on Constantinople, the British fleet was sent to the Dardanelles, 
and Great Britain prepared for war. Hostilities were prevented 
by the summons of a European Congress to Berlin, at which 
Great Britain was represented by Disraeli, now Earl of Beacons- 
field, and by Lord Salisbury, who had succeeded Lord Derby 
as foreign secretary. By the Treaty of Berlin (1878) Servia, 
Roumania, and Montenegro, were declared independent, and 
Bulgaria was split into two autonomous divisions, the southern 
division being still under the nominal rule of Turkey. Russia 



Victoria. 



5°3 



acquired territorial extensions in Asia Minor. At the same 
time, by a secret treaty with the Sultan, Great Britain guaran- 
teed the integrity of Turkey's Asiatic dominions, and in return 
occupied the Island of Cyprus. 

7. Afghanistan (1878 -1880). — Russian policy had been 
checked in Europe, and by way of retaliation, Russian intrigues 
in Afghanistan were renewed. In 1878 Lord Lytton, Viceroy 
of India, demanded that the Ameer Sheer Ali should receive 
an English envoy at Cabul, and, on meeting with a refusal, sent 
an Anglo-Indian army to invade Afghanistan. The Ameer died 
shortly after, and the British Government set up his son 
Yakoob Khan. As soon as the British force withdrew, the 
inhabitants of Cabul murdered the envoy, Cavagnari, and in 
1879 a second invasion became necessary. The Ameer was 
deposed, and Cabul was occupied by British troops under 
General Roberts. A rising of the fierce Afghan tribes followed, 
and General Burrows was defeated at Maiwand, and driven to 
take refuge at Candahar. Here he was besieged, but was 
rescued by the brilliant strategy of General Roberts, who in 
twenty-two days marched a relieving army of 10,000 men 
318 miles through a hostile country, and not only raised the 
siege of Candahar, but routed the Afghan army outside the 
town. As soon as the rule of the new Ameer, Abdurrahman, 
was established, British troops withdrew from Afghanistan 
(1880). 

8. The Zulu War (1 878-1879).— The annexation of the 
Transvaal Republic in 1877 brought Great Britain into 
collision with a powerful native race the Zulus, and in 1879 
war broke out. A British force under Lord Chelmsford 
invaded the country, but two battalions which were left at 
Isandlana were surprised by the enemy and destroyed. An 
invasion of Natal was fortunately prevented by the gallant 
defence of Rorke's Drift and Ekowe, and as Lord Chelmsford 
had been strongly reinforced, he was able to renew the march 
on the Zulu capital, Ulundi. The Zulu king, Cetchwayo, was 
defeated outside the native town, and British prestige was thus 
restored. 



5°4 



Victoria. 



9. Gladstone's Return to Power (1880).— The failure 
of Lord Beaconsfield's Ministry in Afghanistan and South Africa 
proved fatal to its retention of power, and at the general 
elections of 1880 a Liberal majority of one hundred was 
returned to Parliament. This led to a reversal of Conservative 
policy at both centres of disturbance. As we have seen, 
Afghanistan was evacuated in 1880. In 1880 a rising of the 
Transvaal Boers took place, and a British force was disastrously 
defeated at Majuba Hill (1881). The British Government, after 
reinforcing the army in South Africa, refused to pursue a policy 
of revenge, and the independence of the Boers under the 
suzerainty of Great Britain was recognised. 

In 1882 Great Britain was called on to intervene forcibly 
in Egypt. Since 1879 Great Britain and France had exercised 
a dual control over the Khedive's Government, without re- 
pudiating the nominal authority of the Sultan of Turkey. 
Foreign dictation provoked an outburst of national feeling, and 
in 1882 Arabi Pasha put himself at the head of the movement. 
The French Government refused to interfere, and as riots broke 
out in Alexandria, the British fleet destroyed the fortifications. 
A British army was landed, and Arabi was defeated at Tel-el- 
Kebir. Henceforward a practical protectorate has been exercised 
by Great Britain, and British statesmen justly hold that France, 
by refusing her help to maintain the dual control, has forfeited 
her influence in Egypt. 

The occupation of Egypt led to a period of disaster in the 
Soudan. The hold of Egypt on the southern provinces, in- 
habited by fanatical Arab tribes, had been much weakened, and 
the rise of the Mahdi, a Mahommedan prophet, threatened it 
with extinction. A native army, under Hicks Pasha, was 
destroyed in 1883, and Gladstone thereupon decided to send 
General Gordon, a former ruler cf the Soudan, to withdraw the 
Egyptian garrisons. It was hoped that the prestige of Gordon's 
name would have a pacific effect, but the hope proved illusory, 
and in 1885, after a prolonged resistance, Khartoum was 
captured and Gordon was killed. Too late an expedition 
under Lord Wolseley had been sent to the rescue. After 



«. % 



Victoria. 



5°5 



surmounting great difficulties the relieving force defeated the 
Mahdi at Abu-Klea, and came within striking distance of 
Khartoum only to learn that its heroic defender was dead. 
The army fell back, and for a time the Soudan was given over 
to the followers of the Mahdi. 

10. Ireland. — Since 1876 the question of Home Rule had 
been pressed on Parliament with increasing insistence, and 
under the leadership of Parnell the obstructive tactics of the 
Irish members threatened to paralyse the action of the House 
of Commons. The general election of 1880 had greatly 
strengthened the Home Rule party in Ireland, and, in spite of 
a new Land Act in 1881, the activity of the Land League, 
founded in 1879, caused a bitter struggle between landlords 
and tenants. A Coercion Act was passed, and under its 
provisions Forster, the Irish chief secretary, imprisoned Parnell 
and a number of other Home Rule leaders in Kilmainham 
prison. The Nationalist members retorted by a " No-Rent 
Manifesto," and the English Government dissolved the Land 
League as an " illegal and criminal association." The failure 
of coercion to quiet the country forced Gladstone, in 1882, to 
reconsider his policy, and Forster resigned when Parnell and 
his associates were released on the understanding that their 
opposition to the Government would cease. The attempted 
reconciliation was terribly marred by the brutal murder of the 
new chief secretary, Lord Frederick Cavendish, by a body of 
desperate men, the " Invincibles," and a fresh Coercion Act 
was passed. 

11. The Home Rule Bill (1886).— In 1884 the Liberal 
party obtained the passing of a new Reform Bill, which gave 
the right to vote to the agricultural labourers, and under 
pressure from the House of Lords a Redistribution Bill was 
passed concurrently, reorganising the representation so as to 
equalise more nearly the electoral areas. In 1885 Gladstone's 
administration, which had suffered in prestige from its action 
in Ireland and Egypt, was defeated in the Commons, and 
resigned. Lord Salisbury then formed a Conservative Ministry. 1 

1 Lord Beaconsfield had died in 188 1. 



506 Victoria. 

The result of the general election of 1885 was that the two 
parties were so evenly balanced that the Parnellite members 
held the key of the situation, and compelled Lord Salisbury to 
resign. Gladstone returned to power; but a large and most 
influential body of Liberals, including Lord Hartington, Mr. 
Goschen, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. John Bright, refused to 
accept the proposed concession of Home Rule to which the 
prime minister now pledged himself. In spite of their 
defection the Home Rule Bill of 1886 was introduced, but 
was defeated by a coalition of Conservatives and Liberals. 
At the general election the coalition of " Unionists " obtained 
a large majority, and Lord Salisbury again took office. 

12. Lord Salisbury's Second Ministry (1886-1802). 
— Throughout this period the Irish problem overshadowed 
every other question, and neither coercion nor measures of 
conciliation availed to stem the tide of disaffection. For 
England the most important event was the passing of the Local 
Government Act (1888), and the Free Education Act (1891). 
In foreign affairs the country was kept out of serious entangle- 
ments, and Lord Salisbury's rule was therefore marked by the 
maintenance of peace. In 1892 it again became necessary 
to consult the country by a general election, and Gladstone 
obtained an increase of his following. This enabled him, in 
alliance with the Irish Nationalists, to command a majority 
of forty, and Lord Salisbury therefore resigned. 

13. The Home Rule Government (1802-1805). — 
Gladstone's second Home Rule Bill was passed by the 
Commons after debates lasting eighty-two days, and after a 
drastic application of the "closure." It was rejected by an 
overwhelming majority of the Lords. The Government refused 
to resign, and proceeded to carry out some of the pledges 
which had been put forward before the elections in what was 
called the Newcastle Programme. Hence the Employers' 
Liability Act and the Parish Councils Act were passed. In 
1894 Gladstone, at the age of eighty-four and after sixty-two 
years of strenuous public life, laid down the burdens of office, 
and Lord Rosebery became prime minister. The life of the 



Victoria. 507 

Ministry was, however, precarious, and in 1895 Lord Rosebery 
resigned after a defeat in the Commons. The Home Rule 
Liberals sustained a crushing defeat at the general elections, 
and the Unionists obtained a majority of one hundred and 
fifty-two. 

14. Foreign Relations (1805-1898). — In 1886 the 
Liberal Unionists had refused to join the Conservative Ministry, 
but in 1895 a Coalition Ministry was formed under Lord 
Salisbury, and it included the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. 
Chamberlain, Mr. Goschen, as well as Mr. Arthur Balfour, 
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Lord George Hamilton, and other 
members of the Conservative party. Mr. Balfour became first 
lord of the treasury and leader of the House of Commons. 

It was fortunate for the country that the decision of the 
nation between the competing political parties had been so 
unmistakable, for the series of foreign complications, which 
followed the advent of the Unionist Government, made a strong 
and united Ministry of primary importance. In 1895 the 
relations between Great Britain and the United States were 
endangered by the intervention of President Cleveland in the 
boundary dispute between this country and Venezuela, and an 
outburst of anti-British feeling in the United States was the 
result. American statesmen were, however, unwilling to proceed 
to extremes, and Lord Salisbury's conciliatory attitude made it 
possible to settle the dispute by arbitration. At the crisis of 
the Venezuelan question public opinion was violently excited 
by the news that Dr. Jameson had organised a raid from British 
territory into the Transvaal on behalf of the " Outlanders " — the 
name applied to British residents in the Transvaal who were 
excluded from the franchise. The German Emperor brought 
Germany and Great Britain to the verge of war by a telegram 
to President Kruger, couched in terms menacing to Great 
Britain. 

In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian expedition was sent to reconquer 
the Soudan from the Khalifa, as the successor to the Mahdi was 
called. Under the guidance of the Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, 
a prolonged series of military operations drove the Arabs out 



5 o8 



Victoria. 



of the conquered districts, and the successes culminated at the 
battle of Omdurman (1898).. in which the Khalifa was defeated. 
Khartoum, where the heroic Gordon had laid down his life, 
once more became the capital of the Soudan. This achieve- 
ment was the prelude to a dangerous Anglo-French crisis, for 
the Sirdar, on reaching Khartoum, found that a French force 
under Major Marchand had established itself at Fashoda, on 
the Nile above Khartoum, with the view of asserting French 
claims over the Nile valley. Fortunately the firm attitude of 
Lord Salisbury induced the French Government to withdraw 
Marchand's expedition, and war was averted. In 1899 the 
spheres of English and French influence in this part of Africa 
were settled by treaty, and France renounced all claims over 
the valley of the Upper Nile. 

15. The Outbreak of the Boer War (1899).— The 
magnanimous treatment of the Boers by Great Britain in 1881 
had been marred by the omission to settle clearly once for all 
the relations of the revived Transvaal Republic to the British 
Crown. The Transvaal was not restored to the position of 
independence it had held in 1877, for the suzerainty of Great 
Britain was asserted, but the exact meaning of the term and 
the rights which it gave to the suzerain were left undecided. 
About 1886 the discovery of valuable gold-fields in the Trans- 
vaal was followed by the influx of British settlers, and an 
industry of vast proportions was developed. The revenue of 
the Transvaal rose from ^154,000 in 1886, to ^4,000,000 in 
1899. In spite of the fact that the mining population out- 
numbered the Boers, the Outlanders were denied the right to 
the franchise, and a series of galling restrictions was placed on 
them which hampered their industry and withheld from them 
the rights which Englishmen throughout the Empire regard 
as their birthright. -It was inevitable that a collision should 
follow between the oligarchy at Pretoria, of which President 
Kruger was the guiding spirit, and the commercial interests, of 
which Johannesburg was the centre. The insane project of the 
Jameson raiders, though it obscured the issues, only deferred 
the day of settlement. 



Victoria. 



509 



The appointment of Sir Alfred Milner as British Com- 
missioner in South Africa, was followed by long and -anxious 
attempts to find a peaceful solution of existing difficulties. But 
President Kruger, not unnaturally, saw in the Outlanders' demand 
for equality of electoral rights the prospect that the Boers would 
be absorbed by an alien majority, and declared that if he granted 
the franchise Boer independence would cease. Various pro- 
posals from one side or the other were discussed, but without 
result. On August 26, Mr. Chamberlain, the colonial secre- 
tary, warned the Boer Government that the patience of Great 
Britain was not inexhaustible, and on September 8, what was 
in substance a British ultimatum, was sent to Pretoria. On 
October 9, the Boer Government replied by a demand that the 
troops upon the borders of the Republic should be withdrawn, 
and that all reinforcements which had arrived, or were on the 
high seas, should be recalled. These demands Great Britain 
declined to discuss, and war broke out. The Orange Free 
State, with which Great Britain had no quarrel, at once threw 
in its lot with the Transvaal. 

16. The Campaigns of 1899 and 1900. — The war opened 
disastrously for Great Britain. Natal was invaded, a British 
army under Sir George White was shut up in Ladysmith, and 
the garrisons of Kimberley and Mafeking were besieged. Lord 
Methuen, after a victory at Modder River, was checked in his 
advance on Kimberley at Magersfontein, while in the same 
week General Gatacre in the north of Cape Colony was defeated 
at Stormberg. Meanwhile General Buller, the commander-in- 
chief, had been massing his troops south of the Tugela River 
to advance to the relief of Ladysmith. On December 1 5 the 
disastrous battle of Colenso was fought, and General Buller, 
losing hope, sent a heliographic message to Sir George White 
authorising his surrender. The beleaguered general refused to 
consider the proposal. 

In one week three defeats, Magersfontein, Stormberg, 
Colenso, had been inflicted on British arms, but the spirit of 
the nation rose to grapple with disaster. Two days after 
Colenso, the Government decided to send Lord Roberts to 



5io 



Victoria. 



take over the supreme command, with Lord Kitchener as 
his chief of staff. Reinforcements on a large scale were got 
ready for service at the front, and while Yeomanry and Volun- 
teers were enrolled, the offers of further contingents from the 
colonies were accepted. 

Early in February, 1900, the plans of Lord Roberts were 
ready, and the whole aspect of the war was changed by the 
series of blows struck in rapid succession at the hitherto suc- 
cessful enemy. On February 12, General French with 
5000 cavalry started for the relief of Kimberley, and sweeping 
round the left flank of the Boer army posted under General 
Cronje at Magersfontein, drove off the besiegers of Kimberley 
on February 15. Meanwhile the main British army under 
Lord Roberts had moved forward to outflank Cronje and cut 
his communications with Bloemfontein. On February 15, 
Cronje, realising his danger, broke up his camp and pushed 
eastward, hotly pursued by British mounted infantry. Across 
the enemy's line of retreat lay the Modder River, and two out 
of the three available fords or " drifts " were seized by the 
mounted infantry. Cronje's last chance of escape vanished 
when 2000 cavalry under General French, after a splendid 
march from Kimberley, occupied the third ford, Wolves- 
kraal Drift. The Boers were now surrounded at Paardeberg, 
and Cronje, after successfully repelling an attempt to drive 
him from his intrenchments, and sustaining a bombardment 
which lasted a week, surrendered with 4000 men (February 27). 
On March 13 Lord Roberts entered Bloemfontein, the capital 
of the Orange Free State. 

A month had now elapsed since Lord Roberts had sent 
General French to the relief of Kimberley, and in all directions 
the flood of disaster had been stemmed. The long-drawn 
agony of the siege of Lady smith was over. General Buller, 
after a series of operations marked by one terrible mistake, 
the capture and abandonment of Spion Kop on January 23, 
succeeded at last in turning the Boer position, and Ladysmith 
was relieved. The siege had lasted 1 1*8 days, and the defence 
of the town by Sir George White and his gallant men is the 



Victoria. 511 

most memorable feature of the war. If Ladysmith had fallen 
a staggering blow would have been dealt to the British Empire, 
and those nations of the Continent who watched our reverses 
with unconcealed delight would have been emboldened to 
interfere. 

On May 1, 1900, the advance of the army under Lord 
Roberts was resumed, and a month later Pretoria, the capital 
of the Transvaal, was occupied. Since the capture of 
Bloemfontein the British advance had been checked by the 
need of horses and by transport difficulties, and the Boers had 
taken advantage of this to harass and in some cases to inflict 
severe checks on detachments of British troops. But these 
were to a great extent inevitable in operations conducted in a 
country of such vast extent, and against a mobile and admir- 
ably courageous foe. In May, however, the brave defence of 
Mafeking by Colonel Baden-Powell and a small body of men, 
chiefly civilians, was concluded by the relief of the town. 
Throughout June and July Lord Roberts at Pretoria was 
intent on securing his lines of communication. Towards the 
end of July the enemy were driven away from the railway, 
which traverses the Orange Free State, and were forced to 
retire eastward towards the Natal border, and by August 6 
over 4000 Boers had surrendered. The capture of Harri- 
smith, the terminus of the Natal railway system, enabled 
supplies to be forwarded from Durban. In August the British 
advance from Pretoria began, and the conquest of the eastern 
Transvaal culminated in the capture of the frontier town 
Komatiport (September 24). President Kruger fled to 
Lourenco Marques, and thence to Europe. 

17. The Guerilla War (1901-1902). — The overthrow of 
the Boer armies, the capture of their capitals, and the proclama- 
tion of the annexation of the two Boer States did not end the war. 
The tenacity of the Boer spirit showed itself in the long and 
wearisome struggle which followed the return of Lord Roberts 
to England. Supreme command was given to Lord Kitchener, 
and under his direction the last and by no means the least 
troublesome stage of the war was concluded. The Bqer 



512 Victoria. 



resistance was skilfully organised by Botha, De Wet, and 
Delarey, and the scattered operations taxed the patience and 
endurance of the army of occupation. In spite of the fact that 
the result was inevitable, the British troops had still to encounter 
reverses and much hard marching and fighting before the 
guerilla warfare died down, after lasting nearly eighteen months. 
18. The Death of Queen Victoria (iooi).— The 
concluding months of the Queen's reign had been darkened 
by the disasters in South Africa and by anxieties in the Far 
East. In T900 an anti-foreign movement took place in China, 
and the foreign legations were besieged, and were only rescued 
by an international force after a gallant defence lasting several 
months. During the prolonged anxiety of the Boer War the 
Queen's faith in the ultimate success of British arms was never 
shaken, and throughout the struggle she was untiring in 
carrying out every measure to which her sympathies as a 
sovereign and a woman prompted her. But the strain of her 
manifold cares was beginning to tell on her, and early in 1901 
her subjects throughout the world were thrown into consterna- 
tion by the news that her life was in danger. There had been 
times during her reign when her popularity had suffered, and 
this had been especially the case when, after the death of the 
Prince Consort, she retired as much as possible from the public 
gaze. The Queen naturally resented the criticisms of her sub- 
jects, who necessarily could know little of the overwhelming 
mass of routine duties which were laid upon her. But this 
diminution of popularity was due to misunderstandings which in 
time passed away, and the deep-seated affection and veneration 
with which she was regarded were shown beyond all possi- 
bility of misconception in 1887 and 1897, when she celebrated 
the fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries of her accession. The 
tidings of her illness touched most deeply the hearts of her 
people, and on every quarter of the globe and upon all classes 
and races her death fell with the weight of a personal sorrow. 
To the Empire she had come to be the living symbol of 
its unity, and men felt that with her there had passed away 
a great source of patriotic inspiration. 



Victoria 513 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Reform Bill 1867. 

Disestablishment of the Irish Church . . . 1869. 

Irish Land Act 1870. 

Elementary Education Act 1870. 

Ballot Act 1872. 

Treaty of Berlin 1878. 

The Land League Agitation 1880-82. 

British occupation of Egypt 1882. 

Death of General Gordon 1885. 

Gladstone adopts Home Rule 1886. 

Reconquest of the Soudan completed . . . 1898. 

The Boer War begins 1899. 

Death of Queen Victoria I9© 1 - 



2 L 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

EDWARD VII. (1901-1910) : GEORGE V. (1910- ). 

The Progress of Democracy. 

1. The Accession of Edward VII. — The death of the Queen 
was followed by the proclamation of his Majesty King Edward 
VII. The accession of the King brought with it no political 
changes. The Civil List was settled on generous terms, the 
chief opponent, from the Radical point of view, being Mr. 
John Burns : though many of the Irish members showed 
feelings of resentment, because the Government of Lord Salis- 
bury could not see its way to alter the terms of the Declaration 
made by the Sovereign at the first opening of Parliament after 
his accession, which were insulting to the doctrines of the 
Catholic Church, accepted by thirteen millions of his Majesty's 
subjects. 

A great external change began in the appearance that the 
Monarchy made before the people, greatly to their satisfaction. 
The King exercised less influence than did Queen Victoria 
over the measures adopted by his ministers, maintained as 
little correspondence with them as possible, but was genial in 
his intercourse with them, and ready to grant them personal 
interviews. He was punctuality itself, and no arrears of work 
ever accumulated. This was rendered the more easy from the 
fact that London became the headquarters of the Court. 

2. The King's Influence in Favour of Peace. — The 
King's love of pageantry proved pleasing to the public, and 
the aspect of London became much more brilliant, through 
the continual entertainment of foreign monarchs and other 

514 



Edward VII. and George V. 515 

ceremonial functions of the Court. The King himself was a 
valuable factor in the maintenance of peace in Europe, through 
the friendly intercourse that took place during his reign, during 
the visits of the foreign sovereigns to his Court, and his own 
frequent journeys and personal interviews with them and their 
ministers in their own countries. 

3. The End of the Boer War. — In 1900 a general 
election had ratified the policy of the Government, and Lord 
Salisbury remained at the head of affairs until July, 1902, when 
he retired from office, and Mr. Arthur Balfour became prime 
minister. Before the change took place the nation had the 
satisfaction of seeing the Bosr War concluded. A struggle 
which had lasted two years and seven months, and had cost 
the Empire 20,000 lives, and 100,000 men disabled by wounds 
or disease, was at last ended by the Peace of Pretoria (May 31, 
1902). It had been hoped that the peace would have been 
followed by the King's coronation, but his Majesty's dangerous 
illness on the eve of the date fixed for the ceremony caused its 
postponement. Happily the. King's recovery after a serious 
surgical operation was rapid and complete, and on August 9, 
1902, his Majesty and his Consort, Queen Alexandra, were 
crowned at Westminster Abbey in the presence of representa- 
tives from every portion of the Empire. 

4. Alteration in the King's Title. — In 1901 a bill was 
passed by which the King's title was altered so as to include 
reference to the Colonies. His Majesty was therefore pro- 
claimed " Edward VII. by the grace of God, King of the 
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the 
British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of 
the Faith, Emperor of India." This addition set the seal 
of the nation's approval on the great development of national 
patriotism which marked the last quarter of the nineteenth 
century. In the early days the Colonies were regarded with 
little interest or affection, and some people thought that as 
soon as it suited the interests of the Colonies they would 
renounce their allegiance to the Mother Country. But the 
end of the century saw the spread of the conviction that 



5 1 6 Edward VII. and George V. 

the Empire was wide enough and strong enough to hold 
together in common loyalty all the elements of which it was 
composed. The great self-governing communities, such as the 
Dominion of Canada, established in 1867, and the Common- 
wealth of Australia in 1901, have falsified the old saying of the 
eighteenth century that " colonies are like fruits which only 
cling until they are ripe." To these was added, in 19 10, the 
Union of South Africa, under the Liberal ministry of Sir Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman. 

5. Foreign Friendships and Alliances : Ireland.— In 
1902 the first alliance with an Oriental power was concluded 
with Japan. 

The King, who had visited Pius IX. on three occasions 
when Prince of Wales, was received in audience by Leo XIII., 
the first visit of the kind paid by an English king since the 
time of King Alfred. The visit paid in the same year to the 
French President, M. Loubet, and the magnificent reception 
of the latter in London, led to the arrangement with France that 
was made on April 8th between M. Delcasse and Lord Lans- 
downe, known as the " Entente Cordiale," which overcame by 
its terms many difficulties that had for years caused irritation 
between the two countries, and was fraught with remark- 
able consequences as regards the future of the European 
balance of power. England, France, and Russia became the 
counterpoise to the weight of Germany, Austria, and Italy in 
European international politics. 

The King visited Ireland in 1903, 1904, and 1907, and a 
far-reaching measure, the Land Purchase Act of 1903, did 
more than innumerable coercion acts had done to bring about 
peace and satisfaction throughout that country. 

6. New Political Questions.— The political questions 
that were now rising above the horizon may be summed up 
under the following heads: (1) the system of national educa- 
tion; (2) the contest between the advocates of Tariff Reform 
and Free Trade ; (3) the Imperial question, namely the con- 
stitutional relations of the Colonies to the Mother Country ; 
(4) the reform and extension of the Army and Navy; (5) the 



Edward VII. and George V. 517 

relations between the two Houses of Parliament ; and (6) the 
Home Rule question. 

The Education question was solved, at least for a time, by 
Mr. Balfour's Act of 1902, throwing the whole of the current 
expenses of the elementary schools upon the rates and the 
taxes, making the County Councils and Borough Councils the 
local educational authorities, but allowing the managers of 
the voluntary schools, Anglican, Catholic, Wesleyan and 
Jewish, to appoint their own teachers and to regulate their 
own religious teaching, on condition that they provided the 
sites and buildings for their schools, which in the other cases 
were provided at the expense of the rates, by the local 
authorities. 

7. General Election : Liberals in Power. — In 
December, 1905, Mr. Balfour's ministry, torn by internal 
dissensions between the supporters of Tariff Reform and 
of Free Trade, resigned. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 
became Prime Minister, and the general election of 1906 
gave an overwhelming majority to the Liberals. Among the 
new ministers, the more noteworthy were Mr. John Burns, 
now President of the Local Government Board, and Mr. 
Haldane, who became Secretary of State for War. The 
bestowal of self-government on South Africa and the admission 
of the Colonial Ministers to the confidential meetings of the 
Committee of Imperial Defence and their conferences in 
London, helped to consolidate the common interests of the 
whole Empire. 

In April, 1908, upon the resignation of Sir Henry Camp- 
bell-Bannerman through ill-health — he died shortly afterwards 
— the King, then in Biarritz, sent for Mr. Asquith, who, upon 
his return, formed a ministry without the King's assistance. 
In this ministry, Mr. Lloyd George as Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, and Mr. Winston Churchill as First Lord of the 
Admiralty, became conspicuous figures. 

8. Army Reform. — Mr. Haldane now attempted a 
drastic reform of the Army, reorganised the historical Militia 
under the name of the Special Reserve, and the Volunteers 



5 1 8 Edward VII. and George V. 

under the name of the Territorial Force, giving County 
Associations under the presidency of the Lords Lieutenant a 
large share of control. The Navy was reorganised under Lord 
Fisher, the First Sea Lord ; the weaker ships were weeded out, 
the small and distant squadrons were dispersed; speed, power 
and concentration were the qualities now most attended to, 
and large and powerful fleets were retained in home waters. 

9. Conflict between Lords and Commons. — The 
conflict between the Houses of Lords and Commons did not 
become acute until the rejection of the Budget by the Lords 
in 1909. The Liberal party thought it was useless to continue 
in office while there was a permanent majority opposed to 
them in the House of Lords. The Budget had been passed in 
the House of Commons by 379 votes to 149, and was rejected 
by the House of Lords by 350 votes to 75. The King dis- 
solved Parliament in December, 1909. The Government of 
Mr. Asquith was returned by a majority of 124, and in the 
King's speech at the opening of Parliament there occurred the 
following passage. " Proposals will be laid before you, with 
all convenient speed, to define the relations between the 
Houses of Parliament so as to secure the undivided authority 
of the House of Commons over finance, and its predominance 
in legislation. These measures, in the opinion of my advisers, 
should provide that the House [of Lords] should be so con- 
stituted and empowered as to exercise impartially in regard to 
proposed legislation the function of initiation and revision and 
subject to proper safeguards of delay." A Bill was introduced 
in April, 1910, to disable the Lords from rejecting or amend- 
ing a money bill, " and which should provide that a Bill being 
passed by the Commons in three successive sessions, and 
being thrice rejected by the Lords shall become law in spite 
of the Lords' dissent." 

10. Death of Edward VII.— Accession of George V. 
— Meanwhile King Edward died, after a very short illness, on 
May 6. A conference between the leaders of both parties 
failed to come to any compromise, and on November 28 
the Parliament was dissolved by King George V., the only 



Edward VII. and George V. 519 

surviving son of King Edward, whom he succeeded. The 
Government of Mr. Asquith was returned by a majority of 
126, and on August 10, 191 1, the Parliament Bill was passed. 
This cannot but have the most important consequences on 
future legislation, and will remain active until the promised 
reform of the House of Lords is carried into effect. 

The outburst of grief at the death of King Edward was 
spontaneous and remarkable. The funeral through London 
was attended by the German Emperor, the Kings of Spain, 
Portugal, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, and Bulgaria, 
the heirs of Austria, Turkey, Servia and Montenegro, and was a 
wonderful demonstration of popular loyalty to the monarchy. 
King Edward had made himself beloved by the various classes 
of his subjects. His attitude towards religion was "gentle, 
good, and proper " : he had travelled through all the Colonies. 
His consideration won the affection of those who served him : 
his varied human interests broke down the barriers of royal 
exclusiveness : he was interested in agriculture and in the 
stage : he gave frequent proofs of personal courage : he had a 
great love of sport, and hunting was his favourite amusement 
until middle life : he was. the first sovereign who won the 
Derby. He passed with credit through the first reign that was 
subjected to the daily minute observation of the Press. 

We cannot pass over the wonderful developments of 
physical science that have taken place during this reign : 
reference must be made to the almost universal use of motor 
traction, and to the changes brought about by wireless tele- 
graphy, and aeroplanes and submarine vessels in the navy. 

11. Conclusion. — His son George V. obtained the Civil 
List on almost the same terms as his father, and had the 
satisfaction of opening his Parliament and being crowned 
without having to recite the offensive Declaration. A form of 
words was devised which embodied the Sovereign's definite 
adherence to the Protestant religion, as established by law, 
without reflecting on the beliefs of his Catholic subjects. 

The responsibilities of the King, Lords, and Commons 
are increased rather than diminished by the extension of 



520 Edward VII. and George V. 

the interests of the Empire. Millions of our fellow-beings, 
scattered over the face of the earth, look to Great Britain 
for protection and guidance, and on her are laid the burdens 
of an Empire, the greatest that the world has ever known. 
But vastness of extent and splendour of material achieve- 
ments are not the tests which justify and perpetuate world- 
wide dominion. The permanence of the British Empire, as a 
factor in moulding the future of mankind, depends on the 
wisdom and steadfastness with which Great Britain and her 
sons beyond the seas continue to uphold the principles of 
morality and justice, which are implanted in the heart "and 
conscience of the human race. 



CHIEF EVENTS. 

A.D. 

Accession of Edward VII. ....... 1901. 

Alteration of the King's Title 1901. 

Alliance between Japan and Great Britain . 1902. 

Peace of Pretoria 1902. 

Coronation of King Edward VII. . August, 1902. 

Resignation of Lord Salisbury : Mr. Balfour 

Piime Minister 1902. 

Mr. Balfour's Education Act' 1902. 

Important Agreement between France and 

Great Britain 1904. 

Resignation of Mr. Balfour : Sir H. Camp- 
bell- Bannerman Prime Minister . ... 1905. 

General Election : Great Liberal Majority . 1906. 

Mr. H. H. Asquith Prime Minister .... 1908. 

The Finance Bill thrown out by the Lords . 1909. 

Death of Edward VII. Accession of 

George V 1910- 



INDEX 



Abercromby, Sir Ralph, 420, 429 
Aberdeen, Lord, 465, 475, 4 8 3> 4 8 4- 

488 
Abjuration Act, the, 340 
Abyssinian War, the, 497 
Addington. See Sidmouth, Lord 
Adulterine Castles, the, 68, 71 
Agreement of the People, the, 291, 

296, 298 
Agricola, Julius, 4, 5, 6 
Aidan, St., 16, 24 
Aids, feudal, 93, 95, 97- 10I > IXI » 

143 
Aix-la-Chapelle, the Peace of, 307, 

, 37°. 37L 376 
Alabama, the, 500 
Albemarle, A. van Keppel, Earl of, 

326 
, George Monk, Duke of, 295, 

302, 306 
Alberoni, Cardinal, 358, 359, 447 
Albert, Prince Consort, 470, 495, 496, 

Alcuin, 17, 36 

Alencon, Francis, Duke of, 242, 244 

Alexander I., Tsar of Russia, 421, 

435. 438. 444. 457 

III., King of Scotland, 107 

Alfred, King of Wessex, 24, 25, 26, 

27, 29, 163 

, Laws of, 34 

Alnwick, 57, 82 

Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

38 
Alva, the Duke of, 240, 241, 406 
America, North, the English in, 374- 

376 
American Colonies, Recognition of 

the Independence of, by France, 393 

, Secession of the, 388-395 

, Taxation of the, 387, 388, 

389, 390, 392 
America, Spanish Colonies in, 246, 351, 

388, 458 
Amherst, General, 380, 381 
Amicable Loan, the, 205 
Amiens, the Mise of, 102 



Amiens, the Peace of, 428, 429, 430, 

431 

, Treaty of, 165 

Anderida(= Pevensey), 10 

Andredsweald, 10 

Angevin Empire, the, 82, 83, 84, 85, 89 

Angles, the, 9, 10, 11 

Anglia, East, 10, 15, 21, 24, 26, 29, 39 

Anjou, 63, 67, 71, 72, 83, 90, 91, 93, 

162 
Anlaf, of Northumbria, 30 
Annates Act, the, 209, 211 
Anne, Queen, 312, 322, 324, 326, 339, 

■34 0-0 CO 

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

58, 59, 61, 62 
Anti-Corn-Law League, the, 474, 475 
Anti-Popes, Benedict X., 45 

, Clement III., 59 

, Clement VII., 161 

Antwerp, 128, 244, 345, 44 1 
Appeals, Statute for the Restraint of, 

210 
Appeals to Rome, 76, 91, 211, 252 
Appellant, the Lords, 148, 149, 15° 
Appropriation of Supplies, 143, 152, 

268, 327 
Aquitaine, 67, 83, 90, 91, 107, 12b, 

127, 136, 137 
Arabi Pasha, 504 
Aragon, Catherine of, 198, 204, 206, 

207, 208, 210, 211, 212, 213, 227 
Archers, 46, 112, 128, 130, 131, 132, 

135. 154. l6 ° 
Arcot, 377 

Argyle, John, Duke of, 353, 35°. 357 
Arianism, 13 
Arkwright, Richard, 406 
Arlington, 307, 308 
Armada, the Invincible, 247-249 
Armagnacs, the, 156, 160, 162, 163 
Armed Neutrality of the North, the, 

420 
Arminius, Dutch Pastor, 273 
Army of England, the, 433 
Arteveldt, James van, 127 
Army Reform, 517 



521 



522 



Index. 



Arthur, Prince, son of Henry VII., 
194, 198 

Arundel, Thomas, Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 150 

Asiento, the, 351 

Aske, Robert, 213, 214 

Asquith, H. H., 517, 518 

"Assertio Septem Sacramentorum," 
the, 207 

Assize of Arms, the, 82 

Athelney, 26 

Athelstan, King, 30, 31 

Attainder, 177, 182, 184, 187, 189, 
216, 217, 222, 278, 317, 356 

Auckland, Lord, 472 

Augsburg, the League of, 321 

Augsburg, Lutheran Confession of, 
216 

Augustine, St., Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 13, 14, 15 

Augustus, Caius Octavius, 5, 438 

Aurungzebe, the Great Mogul, 376 

Australia, the Commonwealth of, 514 

Austria defeated by Prussia, 498 

Austrian Succession, the War of the, 

3 6 5. 3 66 > 3 6 7. 376 
Avignon, 128, 134, 138 

Babington, Conspiracy, the, 245, 246 

" Babylonish Captivity," the, 206 

Bacon, Lord Chancellor, 267 

Balance of Power, the, 204 

Balfour, Arthur, 507, 513, 517 

Balliol, Edward, 125 

— — , John, 107, 108 

Ballot Act, the, 501 

Bamborough, 11, 16, 65 

Bank of England, Foundation of the, 

335- 417- 457 
Barbados, 299, 396, 434 
Bartholomew's Day, Massacre of, St., 

241 
Basel, the Peace of, 415, 416, 434 
Bassein, the Treaty of, 436 
Bastille, the, 410, 412 
Batavian Republic, the, 415, 430 
Bate's Case, 264 
Battles- 
Abu- Klea, 505 

Adwalton Moor, 283 

Agincourt, 160 

Albuera, 442 

Alexandria, 420 

Alma, 486, 488 

Almanza, 346, 349 

Ancrum Muir, 218 

Argaum, 437 

Ashdown, 25 



Battles {contd. )— 
Assandune, 38 
Assaye, 437 
Aughrim, 332 
Austerlitz, 435, 438 
Aylesford, 10 
Balaclava, 487 
Bannockburn, 119 
Barnet, 185 
Beauge\ 162 
Blenheim, 345 
Blore Heath, 177 
Borough bridge, 121 
Bosworth, 191 
Bothwell Bridge, 31 1 
Bouvines, 94 
Boyne, 331 
Bramham Moor, 156 
Brandywine Creek, 393 
Brunanburh, 30 
Bunker Hill, 392 
Burford, 20 
Busaco, 442 
Buxar, 403 
Cambuskenneth, 112 
Camperdown, 417 
Cape Finisterre (1747), 370 

(1805), 434 

Cape Passaro, 358 

Cape St. Vincent (1780), 396 

1 (1797). 4i7 

Carberry Hill, 239 

Chester, 11, 12 

Colenso, 509 

Copenhagen, 420, 421, 429 

Corunna, 440 

Creci, 130, 131, 135, 137, 160 

Cropredy Bridge, 285 

Culloden, 369 

Dettingen, 366 

Drumclog, 311 

Dunbar (1296), 108 

(1650), 295, 301 

Dundalk (1318), 120 

(1566), 254 

Dunes, the, 301 
Dupplin Moor, 125 
Edgehill, 281 
Ellandune, 21 
Ethandune, 26 
Evesham, 103 
Falkirk (1298), 112, 119 

(1746), 369 

First of June, The, 415 
Flodden Edge, 204, 217 
Fontenoy, 367 
Fuentes d'Onoro, 442 
Gerberoi, 52 



Index. 



5 2 3 



Rattles {contd. )— 
Halidon Hill, 126 
Hastenbeck, 379 
Hastings, 45, 46, 50, 51 
Heathfield, 16 
Heavenfield, 16 
Herrings, Battle of the, 166 
Hexham, 182 
Hohenlinden, 419 
Homildon Hill, 153, 154 
Inkerman, 487 
Isandlana, 503 
Jena, 438J 

Killiecrankie, 328, 368 
Lagos, 380 
La Hogue, 333 
Langside, 239 
Leipzig, 432, 445 
Lewes, 103 
Lexington, 392 
Ligny, 447 
Lincoln (1141), 67 

(1217), 97 

Losecoat Field, 184 
Lowestoft, 306 
Magersfontein, 509 
Maiwand, 503 
Majuba Hill, 504 
Malplaquet, 348 
Marston Moor, 284, 285 
Maserfield, 16 
Minden, 380, 385 
M odder River, 509 
Mortimer's Cross, 179 
Mount Badon, 11 
Naseby, 286, 287 
Navarino, 458, 459, 484 
Nechtansmere, 19 
Neerwinden (1693), 334 

(i793). 413 

Neville's Cross, 132 
Newbury (1st), 283 

(2nd), 285 

Newton Butler, 331 

Nile, 418 

Northallerton (of the Standard), 65 

North Foreland (1653), 296 

(1666), 306 

Ockley, 24 
Omdurman, 508 
Oudenarde, 346 
Patay, 167 
Philiphaugb, 287 
Pinkie Cleugh, 221 
Plassey, 381, 490 
Poitiers, 135, 137, 160 
Porto Novo, 405 
Preston, 289 



Battles (contd. )— 
Prestonpans, 368 
Quiberon, 380 
Radcot Bridge, 148 
Ramillies, 345 
Roundway Down, 283 
Rowton Heath, 287 
St. Albans (first), 177, 186 

(second), 180 

St. Quentin, 231 
Salamanca, 444 
Sedgmoor, 317 
Sheriffmuir, 357 
Shrewsbury, 155 
Sluys, 128 
Solway Moss, 217 
Spurs, of the, 203 
Stamford Bridge, 45 
Steinkerk, 334 
Stoke, 194 
Talavera, 441 
Tel-el-Kebir, 504 
Tenchebrai, 61, 62 
Tewkesbury, 185, 186, 188, 193 
Tippermuir, 286 
Towton, 181, 183 
Trafalgar, 435, 436 
Ulundi, 503 
Verneuil, 165 
Vinegar Hill, 424 
Vittoria, 445 
Wakefield, 179 
Wandewash, 383, 403 
Waterloo, 432, 448, 449, 450 
Worcester, 295, 296, 301 
Baylen, 440 
Bayonne, 138, 172, 439 
Beaconsfield, Earl of, 475, 483, 493, 

497, 498, 501, 502, 505 
Beaton, Cardinal, 218 
Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Winches- 
ter, 165, 168, 170 

, Jane, Queen of James I. of 

Scotland, 165 

, John, Earl of Somerset, 153 

, Margaret, 188, 193, 212 

Bee, Monastery of, 58, 62 
Bedchamber Question, the, 470, 471 
Bede, the Venerable, 17, 26, 36 
Bedford, John, Duke of, 163, 164, 165, 

166, 167, 169, 183 
Begums, the, of Oude, 405 
Belgium, 413, 414. 447. 466 
Belesme, Robert of, 60, 61 
Benedictine reform, the, 32 
Benevolences, 191 
Bentinck. See Portland, Earl of 
Berengaria, of Navarre, 86 



5 2 4 



Index. 



Berlin, the Congress of, 502 

Decree, the, 439 

, the Treaty ot (1742), 366 

(1878), 502 

Bernicia, 10, 11 

Berwick, 81. 108, 120, 126, 135, 182, 
187, 196, 276 

, the Treaty of, 276 

Bhonsla, 437 

Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, no, in 

Birinus, Italian Missionary, 15 

Bishops' War, the First, 276 

. , the Second, 277 

Bismarck, Otto von, 494, 498, 500 

Black Death, the, 132, 133, 142 

Friday, 369 

Hole, the, of Calcutta, 381 

Blake, Admiral, 296, 300, 301 

Bloemfontein, 510, 511 

Bloody Assizes, the, 317 

Bliicher, Marshal, 447, 448 

Boadicea, 5 

Bocland, 35 

Boer War, the, 508-512, 515 

Boethius, 27 

Bohun, Earl of Hereford, no, in 

Boleyn, Anne, second wife of Henry 
VIII. , 206, 207, 210, 2ii, 213, 216 

Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, Vis- 
count, 349, 350, 352, 353, 356, 361. 
372 

Bombay, 305, 376, 403 

Bonaparte, Jerome, 439 

, Joseph, 438, 439, 440, 441 

, Louis, 438 

Bonner, Bishop of London, 216, 224, 
230 

Book of Rates, the, 265 

Boroughs first send members to Par- 
liament, 103 

Boscawen, Admiral, 380 

Boston, 389, 392, 393 

Botha, General, 512 

Bothwell, James, Earl of, 238, 239 

Boufflers, Marshal, 334, 346, 348 

Boulogne, 195, 218, 433, 435 

Bourbons, the, 250, 305, 335, 343, 385 

Braddock, General, 375, 376 

Breda, the Declaration of, 302, 303, 
305 

, Treaty of, 306 

Brehon Laws, the, 252 

Bremen, the Duchy of, 358 

Brest, 334, 415, 423, 433, 434 

Breligni, Peace of, 136, 137, 138, 144, 
161 

Bretwalda, 16 

Brice's Day, Massacre of St., 38 



Bright, John, 474, 506 

Brille, 244 

Bristol, 150, 283, 287 

British tribes. See Catuvellauni, Iceni, 

Regni 
Brittany, Duchy of, 30, 72, 83, 128, 

130, 134, 162, 190, 191, 194, 195 
Broad Bottom Administration, the, 

3 6 7 
Brougham, Lord, 464 
Browne, Archbishop of Dublin, 253 

, Robert, 255 

Bruce, Edward, 119, 120 

, Robert, the Claimant, 107, 112 

, , the Younger. See Robert 

I., King of Scotland 
Brunswick, Ferdinand of, 379, 380, 385 
Brussels, 128, 345, 447, 448 
Brythons, the, 3, 4 
Buckingham, Henry Stafford, Duke 

of, 188, 189, 190 
, George Villiers, first Duke of, 

265, 266, 267, 268, 271, 272, 273 

, , second Duke of, 307, 308 

Buller, General, 509, 510 
Bulls, Papal, 20, 79, no, 242 
Burdett, Sir Francis, 461, 464 
Burgh-by-Sands, 113 
Burgoyne, General, 393 
"Burgundians," the, 156, 160, 162, 163 
Burgundy, Anne of, wife of the Duke 

of Bedford, 165, 168 
, Charles the Bold, Duke of, 183, 

185, 186, 187 
, John, the Fearless, Duke of, 156, 

159, 162 

, Margaret of, 187 

, Mary of, 187 

, Philip, Duke of, 162, 164, 165, 

168, 169, 183 
Burke, Edmund, 392, 398, 399, 401, 

402, 405, 412, 421, 437 
Burleigh, Lord. See Cecil 
Burmah, Lower, 472 
Bury St. Edmunds, 94, 170 
Bute, Lord, 385, 386, 387, 421 
Bye Plot, the, 261, 262 
Byng, Admiral John, 378 
, . Sir George, 358 

Cabal, the, 307, 308 

Cabinet, development of the, 303, 

353. 356, 384 
Cabul, 472, 503 
Cade, Jack, 171, 172 
Cadiz, 247, 250, 271, 417, 433, 434 
Cadwallon, King of North Wales, 16 
Caedmon, 17 



Index. 



525 



Caesar, Julius, 3, 4, 5, 371 

Calais, 130, 136, 138, "150, 160, 173, 

177, 182, 183, 186, 231, 232, 236, 

248, 300 
Calcutta, 376, 381 
Calder, Sir Ralph, 434 
Caledonians, the, 5, 8 
Calendar, Reformation of the, 371, 372 
Calvinism, 224, 237, 255, 273, 274 
Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, 160 
Camerons, the, 368 
Camolodunum, 5 
Campbell, .Sir Colin, 492 
Campbell-Bannerman, Sir Henry, 517 
Campbells, the clan of the, 286, 287, 

2 93. 3 l6 . 35 6 
Campeggio, papal legate, 207 
Campion, Edmund, 243 
Campo Formio, Treaty of, 417 
Canada, 370, 375, 380, 386, 388, 446, 

47i 

Bill, Pitt's (1791), 471 

(1840), the, 471 

Candahar, 503 

Canning, George, 428, 437, 439, 442, 

455- 457. 458, 459. 4 6 °> 462, 466 
C anning, Lord, 491 
Canon law, 54, 74, 138, 209 
Canrobert, Marshal, 488 
Canterbury, shrine of St. Thomas of, 

215 
Canute, of England, 23, 38-40 
Cape Breton, 370, 386 

of Good Hope, the, 246, 416, 

429. 45° 
Caractacus, 5 
Carmarthen, Marquess of. See 

Danby, Earl of 
Carnatic, the, 377, 381, 403, 405 
Caroline of Anspach, wife of George 

II., 362, 364 

of Brunswick, wife of George 

IV., 454, 455 

Cartagena, 246, 364 

Carteret. See Granville, Earl of 

Carthusians, the, 212 

Carucage, 88 

Cassivelaunus, 4, 5 

Castle, Arundel, 60 

, Berkeley, 122 

, Bridgnorth, 60 

, Cardiff, 61 

, Carisbrooke, 289 

, Chateau Gaillard, 89, 91 

, Corfe, 37 

, Flint, 150 

, Fotheringay, 245, 246 

, Loch Leven, 239 



Castle, Mirabeau, 90 

, Montgomery, 57 

— — , Northampton, 81 

, Norwich, 81 

, Nottingham, 81, 125 

, Pontefract, 189 

, Tutbury, 245 

Castlereagh, Lord. See London- 
derry, Lord 

Cateau Cambresis, Peace of, 236 

Catherine of Braganza, 305, 376 

, Queen of Henry V., 162, 163, 

179, 193 

Catholic Association, the, 461 

disabilities in Ireland, 332, 333 

Emancipation, 425, 426, 428, 

460, 461, 472 

hierarchy re-established in Eng- 
land, 478 

League, the, 244, 250 

Reaction, the, 241 

Relief Act, 397 

Cato Street Conspiracy, the, 454 
Catuvellauni, the, 4, 5 
Cavagnari, Major Louis, 503 
Cavalry, 46, 57, 119, 123, 130 
Cavendish, Lord Frederick, 505 
Cawnpore, 490, 491, 492 
Ceawlin, 11 
Cecil, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, 233, 

261, 262, 263, 265, 266 
, William, Secretary of State, 

233, 240, 245, 256 
Celibacy of the clergy, 32, 54, 61, 

216, 227 
Celts, the, 3, 4, n, 106 
Ceylon, 416, 429 
Chad, St., 19 

Chamberlain, Joseph, 506, 507, 509 
Charlemagne, 10, 17, 21, 23, 432 
Charles I., King of England, 266, 

267, 268, 270-290 
II., King of England, 292, 293, 

302, 303-314, 376 

IV., King of France, 121, 126 

V., King of France, 135, 137 

VI., King of France, 149, 153, 

156, 159, 161, 164 
VII., King of France, 162, 164, 

165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172 
VI 1 1., King of France, 187, 191, 

194, 195, 197, 198 

IX., King of France, 241, 244 

X. , King of France, 462, 463 

I., King of Spain. See Charles 

V., Emperor 

II., King of Spain, 307, 335, 

336, 338 



526 



Index. 



Charles IV., King of Spain, 439 

V., Emperor, 204, 205, 206, 214, 

216, 217, 218, 227, 228, 379 

VI., Emperor, 336, 338, 345, 

346, 348, 349, 350, 358, 365 

VII., Emperor, 366 

Edward, the ' ' Young Preten- 
der," 367-369 

Charleston (Boston), 392 

(S. Carolina), 395 

Charlotte, Princess, 454, 462 
Charter of the Forests, 98 

of Henry I., 60, 93 

of Henry II., 71 

of Henry III., 97 ; re-issued, 98 

of John, 94, 95, 97, in, 138 

Charters of cities and boroughs, 313, 

322. See also " Quo Warranto " 
, confirmation of the, 108, no, 

in, 143 
Chartists, the, 470 
Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, 

367. 370, 378, 379. 380, 383, 385, 

386, 390, 391, 395, 399, 401, 451, 

464 
Chester, 6, n, 12, 32, 51, 57, 58, 287 
Chesterfield, Lord, 367, 372 
Chinese war, the first, 471 

, the second, 492 

Chivalry, decay of, 141 

Chronicle, the Anglo-Saxon, 27, 32, 

99 
Church, the Anglo-Saxon, 14, 17, 35, 

S 6 , 45 
, the British, 14, 15, 35 

of England, the, 243, 248, 255, 

2 59- 263, 287, 304, 319, 363, 372, 
373, 426, 476, 477 

, the English, 15, 17, 53 

of Ireland, the, 426, 428, 472 

, the early Irish, 16, 17, 80 

of Scotland, 352 

, quarrels with, 66, 72, 73-79, 91, 

92 
Churchill, Arabella, 346 
, John. See Marlborough, Duke 

of 
Cintra, the Convention of, 440 
Circumspecte Agatis, writ of, 114 
Cisalpine Republic, the, 417, 430 
Cistercians, the, 64 
Ciudad Rodrigo, 442, 444 
Civil List, the, 326 

Act, the, 398 

wars in England, 66, 176-180, 

281-288, 289 
in France, 156, 159, 243, 

244, 250 



Civil War in United States, 495, 496, 

500 
Claim of Right, the, 328 
Clarence, George, Duke of, 181, 183, 

184, 185, 186, 187 

, Lionel, Duke of, 154, 169 

, Thomas, Duke of, 162 

Clarendon, the Assize of, jj, 79, 82 

Code, the, 304 

, Constitutions of, 75, 76, 80 

, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 278, 

279.. 3°3. 3°5. 3°6. 307 
Claudius, Roman Emperor, 5 
Clerical Disabilities Act, the, 279, 

304 . 
Clericis Laicos, Bull of Boniface 

VIII., no 
Cleves, Anne of, fourth wife of Henry 

VIII., 217 
Clive, Robert, Lord, 377, 381, 383, 

403, 404, 405 
Closter-Seven, the Convention of, 379 
Cloth-weavers, Dutch, come to Eng- 
land, 241, 406 

, Flemish, 406 

Cloth-weaving, introduction of, 132 
Cobden, Richard, 474 
Cobham, Lord. See Oldcastle 
Coercion Act (1847), the, 476 

(1881), the, 505 

(1882), the, 505 

Coinage, the, 72, 218, 335 

Collingwood, Admiral, 435 

Colonial Empire of Great Britain, the, 

450, 451, 471, 513, 514 
Columba, St., 16 
Columbus, Christopher, 197 
Combination Laws, 479 
Commercial treaties, 402, 496 
Committee of Public Safety, the, 

414' 
Common Pleas, Court of, 82, 114 
Commons, the House of, 103, 142, 

143, 152, 156 
Commonwealth, the, 291-302 
Compton, Sir Spencer. Sec Wil- 
mington, Earl of 
Compurgation, trial by, 33 
Comyn, John, Regent of Scotland, 

112, 113 
Conde\ Prince of, Huguenot leader, 

241 
Confederate States, the, 495, 500 
Confederation of the Rhine, the, 438 
Confirmatio Cartarum. See Charters 
Conge - d'Elire, 138, 211, 235 
Congregation, the Lords of the, 237 
Conspiracy to Murder Bill, the 492 



Index. 



527 



Continental system, the, 438, 439, 

444. 445 
( Conventicle Act, the, 305 
Convention Parliament, the (1660), 

302, 303, 304 

, the (1689), 323, 326 

Conversion of the Danes, 23, 26 

of East Anglia, 15 

of the English, 14 

of Kent, 14 

of Northumbria, 15 

of the Romans, 13 

of the South Saxons, 20 

of Wessex, 15 

Convocation, 141, 208, 209, 210, 211, 

217, 229, 363 
Cooper, Ashley. See Shaftesbury, 

Earl of 
Cope, Sir John, 368 
Copenhagen, the bombardment of, 

439 
Corn Laws, Repeal of the, 475, 480 
Cornwallis, Lord, 395, 398, 406, 424, 

425, 426, 428 
Corporation Act, the, 304, 353, 359, 

363. 461 
Corresponding Societies Act, the, 

421 
Cotton Famine, the, 495, 496 
Council of the North, the, 214, 273, 

278 
Covenanters, the, 286, 311, 316 
Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 208, 210, 211, 213, 216, 

222, 224, 226, 230, 231 
Crepy, Peace of, 218 
Crimean War, the, 484, 486-489, 493, 

494.495 
Criminal Code, Reform of the, 456 
Criminous Clerks, 74, 75 
Cromwell, Oliver, 283, 284, 285, 286, 

288, 289, 292, 293, 295, 297, 298, 

299, 300, 301, 303, 305 
, Thomas, 208, 209, 212, 213, 

216, 217, 253 
Crown, Influence of the, 355, 384, 391, 

392, 398, 400, 466 
Cumberland, William, Duke of, 367, 

369- 370, 379 
Cumbria, 19, 32 

Curia Regis, the, 60, 62, 69, 71, 74 
Cyprus, 86, 87, 503 

Danby, Thomas Osborne, Earl of, 
308, 309, 310, 311, 323, 326, 328, 

335 
Danegeld, the, 35, 37, 52, 88 
Danelagh, the, 26,27, 2 9> 3 l > 3 2 



Danes, the, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31, 32, 

38. 5i. 79 
Danish Boroughs, the, 29 
Darien Scheme, the, 351, 352 
Darnley, Henry Stuart, Earl of, 238, 

239. 245 
Deccan, the, 376, 437 
Declaration of Indulgence, the (1672), 

308 

, the (1687), 319 

, the (1688), 320 

of Right, the, 323 

Defender of the Faith, 207 

" Defenders," the, 423 

Deira, 11 

Delhi, 376, 437, 490, 491 

De Noailles, Marshal, 366 

Deorham, 11 

Derby, Lord, 483, 488, 492, 495, 498, 

501, 502 
De Religiosis. See Mortmain 
Dermot Mac-Murrough, 79 
Dervventwater, Lord, 356, 357 
Desmond, the Earl of, 254 
Despensers, the, 120, 121, 122, 123 
Devolution, the War of, 307 
Devonshire, Lord Hartington, 8th 

Duke of, 507 
Dictum de Kenilworth, the, 104 
Directory, the, 416, 418, 419 
Dispensing Power, the, 318, 319 
Disraeli, Benjamin. See Beaconsfield, 

Earl of 
Distraint of Knighthood, Writ of, 

114, 278 
Divine Right of Kings, the, 259, 260, 

270, 274, 315, 323, 324, 325, 327, 

35o. 352 
Domesday Book, 53 
Dort, the Synod of, 274 
Dost Mahommed, 472. 
Douai, the Seminary of, 242 
Dover, the Secret Treaty of, 307 
Drake, Sir Francis, 246, 247, 248, 250 
Drogheda, 250, 292 
Dublin, 79, 194, 250, 279, 292, 329 
Dudley, Guilford, 224, 228 
, Minister of Henry VII., 198, 

203, 221 
Dumouriez, General, 411, 413 
Duncan, Admiral, 417 
Dundee, Graham of Claverhouse, 

Viscount, 311, 316, 328 
Dunkirk, 300, 301, 305, 351 
Dunning's Motion, 398 
Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

30, 31, 32, 37 
Reforms of, 32 



528 



Index. 



Dupleix, Governor of Pondicherry, 

376, 377. 383 
Durham, Lord, 464, 471 
Dutch Frontier Fortresses, the, 307, 

3°8, 334, 340. 344- 348, 35i 
Guards dismissed, 336 

Ealdorman, 34, 37, 38 
Earldoms, Canute's four great, 39 
Eastern Association, the, 283, 284, 

285 
East India Compiny, the, 376, 404, 

405, 472, 490, 492 
Ecclesiastical Commission Court, 319, 

322, 324 

Courts, 54,74,75,76,114, 209, 210 

Titles Bill, the, 478 

Edgar, the Atheling, 44, 49, 50, 51, 

57, 60, 61 

King of England, 24, 31, 32, 37 

Edinburgh, the Treaty of, 237 
Edmund I., King of England, 30, 31 

Ironside, 38, 39, 43 

Edred, King of England, 30, 31 
Education Act, Forster's Elementary, 

409 

, Mr. Balfour's, 517 

Edward, the Confessor, 35, 39, 40, 42- 

44- 52 

the Elder, King, 29, 30 

I. , King of England, 103, 104, 

105-115, 117, 163 
II., King of England, 106, in, 

117-122, 124, 142, 144, 148, 163 
III., King of England, 121, 123- 

144 
IV., King of England, 177, 179, 

180, 181-187, 188, 189 
.V., King of England, 188, 189, 

190. !9i 
VI., King of England, 217, 218, 

221-225 
VII., King ol England, 513,514, 

5'8 
, the Black Prince, 124, 130, 131, 

134. 135. 136. 137. 141 
Edward, Prince, son of Henry VI., 

176, 182, 184, 185, 187, 188, 193 
Edwy, King, 30, 31 
Egbert, King of Wessex, 21, 24 

Egypt- 4^7- 418, 419. 420, 429. 43L 

433, 504 
Elba, 430, 445, 447 
Eleanor, of Aquitaine, 67, 71, 86, 88, 

90, 91 

of Provence, 99 

, Queen of Edward I., 117 

, wife of Simon de Montfort, 99 

Electric Telegraph introduced, 479 



Eliot, Sir John, 271, 273 

Elizabeth, Queen of England, 211, 

212, 221, 222, 225, 228, 233-257 
, Princess, daughter of James I., 

2 .3, 266 
, Queen of Henry VII., 187, 190, 

191, 193, 194, 198 
Ella, king of the South Saxons, 10 
Ellenborough, Lord, 472 
Emancipation Act, the, 465 
Emma of Normandy, 38, 39, 40, 42 
Employers' Liability Act, the, 506 
Empson, Minister of Henry VII., 198, 

203 
Essex, Robert Devereux, second Earl 

of, 250, 254, 256 

, , third Earl of, 281, 283, 

, 285, 286 

Etaples, Treaty of, 195, 198 
Ethelbald, King of Mercia, 20, 36 

, King of Wessex, 24 

Ethelbert, King of Kent, 14, 15 
Ethelred I., King of Wessex, 24, 25, 

29 
, II., the Unready, 2>7< 38, 39, 40, 

42 
Ethelwulf, King of Wessex, 24 
Eugene, Prince, 343, 344, 345, 346, 

348 . 
Exclusion Bill, the, 311, 312, 313 
Excommunication, 54, 75, 78, 92, 95, 

98, 128, 211, 242, 263 
Exhibition, the Great, 480, 481 
Eyre Cooke, Sir, 383, 405 

Factory Acts, the, 480 

Fairfax, Lord, 283, 284 

Fairfax, Sir Thomas, 283, 284, 286, 

287, 289, 295 
Falaise, Treaty of, 82, 85, 106 
Falkes de Breaute\ 98 
Falkland, Viscount, 278, 279 
Family Compact, the, 385, 393 
Fastolf, Sir John, i65 
Fenian Brotherhood, the, 498 
Feudal System, the, 53, 54, 58, 61, 72, 

77, 95, 40S 
Feversham, Lord, 317, 322 
Field of the Cloth of Gold, the, 205 
Finance Bill (1909), 518 
Fire of London, the Great, 306, 316 
Fisher, John, Bishop of Rochester, 

207 212 
Five Members, the, 279 
Five Mile Act, the, 305 
Flambard, Ralph, Justiciar, 58, 60, 93 
Flanders, 51, 92, 94, 95, no, 111, 

132, 168, 156 
Flemings, 81, 94, 127, 128, 196, 406 



Index. 



5 2 9 



Florida, 375, 386, 398 

Folc-right, 35 

Forced Loans, 272 

Foreign Friendships and Alliances, 516 

Forster, W. E., 499, 505 

Fort Duquesne, 37;, 376 

St. David, 376, 381, 383 

St. George, 376 

William (Calcutta), 376, 381 

Fox, Charles James, 399, 400, 401, 

406, 412, 421, 437 

, Henry, 367, 378, 399 

, Bishop of Winchester, 203 

Francis I., King of France, 204, 205, 

206, 214, 218 

, II., King of France, 222, 236 

, Sir Philip, 391, 404, 406 

Franco-German War, the, 489, 500, 

501 

Scottish Alliance, 1^7, 108 

Frederick II. (the Great), King of 

Prussia, 365, 366, 371, 378, 379, 

385, 386, 409 

, Prince of Wales, 3^4 

, Elector Palatine, 266, 267, 268 

Free Education Act, the, 506 

Trade, 402, 455, 474. 475, 483 

French Crown, claim of Edward III. 

to the, 126, 127, 159 
Crown, claim of Henry V. to 

the, 159, j 60 
Republic, establishment of the, 

Revolution, the, 407, 408-416, 

421, 464 
Frobisher, Sir Martin, 248 
Fulk, Count of Anjou, 63 
Fyrd, the, 27, 34, 35, 46, 50, 54, 77, 

82, 114 

Gage, Governor, 392, 393 
Gallican Liberties, the, 408 
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 216, 

221, 224, 226, 228, 230, 231 
Gascony, 99, 102, 105, no, in, 121, 

130, 134, 136, 172, 173 
Gaunt, John of, 137, 140, 141, 146, 

148, 150, 165, 185, 188, 190, 193 
Gaveston, Piers, Earl of Cornwall, 

117, 118, 119 
General warrants, 387 
Geneva Arbitration , the, 500 
Genoese Crossbowmen, 131 
Geoffrey of Anjou, 63, 65, 67, 71 

of Brittany, 81, 82, 83, 89 

Fitz-Peter, 89, 90, 93 

, Archbishop of York, 86 

George I., King of England, 353, 355- 

361 



George II., King of England, 355, 

361, 362-383 

III., King of England, 384-453 

IV., King of England, 444, 454- 

462 

V., King of England, 519 

Gealdines, the, 254 

Germany, Unification of, 494, 495, 

500, 501 
Gertruydenberg, the Conference of, 

348 
Ghent, the Peace of, 446 
Ghoorkas, the, 472 
Gibraltar, 345, 351, 396, 398 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 374 
Ginkel, General, 332 
Girondists, the, 110, 411, 414 
Gladstone, W. E.,402, 478, 483, 484, 

494, 4 6, 498, 501, 502, 504, 505, 506 
Glanvill, Ranulf, 88 
Glencoe, the Massacre of, 329 
Gloucester, Gilbert de Clare, Earl of, 

102, 103 
, Humphrey, Duke of, 164, 165, 

168, 169, 170 

, Richard de Clare, Earl of, 102 

, Richard, Duke of, 181, 187. 

See also kichard III. 

, Thomas, Duke of, 148, 150 

, William, Duke of, 339 

Goderich, Lord, 457, 460, 461, 484 
Godolphin, Sidney, Lord, 334, 335, 

339.. 343- 344- 349- 35o. 360 
Godwin, Earl of Wessex, 35, 39, 40, 

42, 43. 45 
Goidels, the, 3, 4, 5 
Gold discoveries, 508 
Gordon, General, 504, 505, 508 

, Riots, the, 396, 397 

Goschen, Mr., 506, 507 
Grace, the Act of, 327, 328 
Grafton, the Duke of, 389, 390, 391 
Grand Alliance, the, of William III., 

340. 343 

Remonstrance, the, 279, 303 

Granville, Carteret, Earl of, 370 

Grattan, Henry, 396 

Great Council, the, 62, 75, 76, 93, 

101, 108, 142 
Gregorian Calendar, the, 371, 372 
Grenville, George, 387, 388, 389, 390 
Grey, Lady Jane, 224, 225, 226, 228, 

260 

, Lord, 463, 464, 465, 475 

Griffith, King of Wales, 43 
Grindal, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

255 
Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, 100 
Guader, Ralf, Earl of Norfolk, 51 
2 M 



53° 



Index. 



Gualo, papal legate, 97, 98 

Guilds of Merchants, 64 

Guise, Francis, Duke of, 232, 244, 

245- 2 5o 

, Mary of, 222, 237 

Gunpowder Plot, the, 263, 264 
Guthrum, Danish King, 25, 26 
Gwalior, 405 
Gyrth, Earl, 43, 46 

Habeas Corpus Act, the, 311, 317, 

421, 452 
Haeretico Comburendo, Statute de, 

158, 229 
Hague, the Preliminaries of the, 348 
Hales, Sir Edward, 318 
Halifax, the Marquis of, 311, 317, 

326, 328, 355 
Hamilton, Duke of, 289 

, Lord George, 507 

Hampden, John, 275, 276, 277, 278, 

279 
Hampton Court Conference, the, 262 
Hanover, 355, 378, 379, 432, 438, 

470, 498 

-, Sophia, Electress of, 339 

, the Treaty of, 360 

Hapsburg, the House of, 266, 272, 

305, 336, 441 
Hardicanute, King, 40 
Hardwicke, Lord, 365 
Hargreave, 406 
Harley, Robert. See Oxford 
Harold I., King, 40 

II., King, 42, 43, 44-46, 50 

Hardrada, King of Norway, 45 

Haselrigg, 279 
Hastings, John, 107 

, Warren, 404, 405, 406 

, William, Lord, 188, 189 

Hatfield, Synod of, 36 

Havelock, General, 491 

Hawke, Admiral, 380 

Hawkins, Sir John, 246, 247, 248, 250 

Hawley, General, 369 

Heads of the proposals, the, 288, 289 

Heinsius, Grand Pensionary of 

Holland, 343 
Helvetic Republic, the, 419 
Hengist, 10, 14 
Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. , 

268, 271 
Henry I., King of England, 59-64, 71, 

72, 75 
II., King of England, 63, 67, 68, 

69-84, 85, 163 ; dominions of, 71 
III., King of England, 97-104, 

143 



Henry IV., King of England, 148, 149, 

150, 151, 152-157 
V., King of England, 155, 156, 

157, 158-163, 164, 169, 193 
VI. , King of England, 163, 164- 

173, 176-180, 182, 183, 184, 185, 188 
VII., King of England, 186, 188, 

190, 191, 193-200 
VIII., King of England, 198, 

201-219 
II., King of France, 222, 231, 

236 

III., King of France, 244, 250 

IV. (of Navarre), King of France 

250, 263 
, Prince, son of Henry II., 78, 

80, 81, 82, 83 

Hotspur, 154, 155 

VI. , Emperor of Germany, 87, 

88 
Hereford, Roger of Breteuil, Earl of, 

5i 
Hereward the Wake, 51 
Hertford, Edward Seymour, Earl of. 

See Somerset, Duke of 
Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 507 
Hicks Pasha, 504 
Hide, the, 52 
High Commission, the Court of, 234, 

255, 274, 277, 278 
Highlanders, the, 329, 368, 369, 370 
Hildebrand. See Pope Gregory VII. 
Hill, Rowland, "479 
Hoche, General, 414, 423 
Holkar, 436 
Holland, Wars with, 295, 296, 

305. 30 6 . 3° 8 
Holies, member of Parliament, 

279 
Holstein, the Duchy of, 495 
Holy Alliance, the, 457, 458, 466 

Land, the, 57, 59, 86, 87, 88, 

League, the, 203 

'■ Places, the, 83, 484 

Roman Empire, the, 438 

Home Rule, Irish, 329, 473, 505, 506, 

507 

Bill (1886), the, 505, 506 

(1892), the, 506 

Hong-Kong, 471 

Hooker, Richard, 233 

Hopton, Sir Ralph, 283, 285, 287 

Horsa, 10 

House-carls, Canute's, 39, 46 

Howard, Catherine, 5th wife of Henry 

VIII., 217 
, Lord, of Effingham, 248, 

250 



300 



273. 



io>5 



Index. 



53 1 



Howe, General, 393, 395 

, Lord, 398, 415 

Hubert de Burgh, 98, 99 
Hubert, Walter, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91 
Hubertsburg, the Peace of, 386 
Hudson's Bay Territories, 351, 375 
Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, 89 
Huguenots, the, 234, 237, 241, 244, 

250, 271, 272, 318 
Humble Petition and Advice, the, 

299, 300 
Humphrey Bohun, Constable, 81 
Hundred, the, 33, 54 
Hundred-court, the, 34, 54, 58, 63 
Hundred Days, the, 446 

Years' War, the, 127, 173 

Huskisson, 402, 455, 456, 460, 466 
Hyde, Edward. See Clarendon 
Hyderabad, 406, 491 
Hyder Ali, 405 

Ibrahim Pasha, 458, 459 

Iceni, the, 5 

Impeachment, 271, 278, 356 

Imperialism, the growth of, 502, 513, 

514 
Impressment Act, the, 280 
Indemnity, the Act of, 303, 304 
Independence, the American Declara- 
tion of, 391, 393 
Independents, the, 285, 286, 288, 374 
India Bill, the, of C. J. Fox, 399, 405 

•, the, of W. Pitt, 405 

, placed under direct rule of the 

Crown, 492 

, the English in, 376, 377, 381, 

383, 403-406, 471, 472 
Indian Mutiny, the, 489-492 
Industrial Revolution, the, 406, 407, 

451, 452, 479, 480 
Instrument of Government, the, 298, 

299 
Intercursus Magnus, the, 198 
Interdict, 80, 90, 91 
Investiture, 61, 62 
Invincibles, the Irish, 505 
Iona, monastery at, 16 
Ireland, 3, 4, 8, 79, 80, 92, 120, 170 

, legislative independence of, 396 

under Charles I., 275 

the Commonwealth, 292, 293 

Edward VI. , 253 

Elizabeth, 253-255 

George III., 396, 422-426 

IV. , 461 

Henry VII., 252 

VIII., 252 



Ireland under Mary Tudor, 253 

Victoria, 476, 498, 499, 505 

William III., 329, 331-333 

Ireton, 293, 303 

Irish Church Disestablished, 498, 499 

Land Act (1870), the, 499 

(1881), the, 505 

Parliament, the, 396, 422, 425, 

426 

Rebellion of 1798, the, 422 

Volunteers, the, 396 

Isaac Comnenos, 86 

Isabella of Spain, 467, 47?, 476 

, Queen of France, 162 

of Edward II., 117, 120, 

121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127 

of Richard II. , 149 

Italian Republic, the, 430, 438 
Italy, Kingdom of, founded, 494 
Itinerant Justices, J7 

Jacobins, the, 411, 414, 415, 421 
Jacobite Cause, the, 329, 335, 352, 

356> 357. 367-370. 3 8 4 
Jacqueline of Hainault, 165 
Jacquerie, the, 136 
Jacquetta of Luxemburg, 168, 183 
Jamaica, 300, 396 
James I., King of England, 238, 245, 

256, 259-269 
I., King of Scotland, 155, 156, 

165, 273, 276 
II., King of England, 260, 306, 

309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 315-325, 

329. 340 

III., King of Scotland, 187 

IV, King of Scotland, 196, 198, 

203, 204, 260 

V., King of Scotland, 204, 217 

, the " Old Pretender," 321, 322, 

348, 352, 356, 357, 358, 367, 368 
, the " Old Pretender " recognised 

by Louis XIV., 340 
Jeanne d'Arc, 164, 166, 167, 168 
Jeffreys, Judge, 317, 320 
Jenkins's ear, 364 

Jerusalem, Latin kingdom of, 83, 87 
Jervis, Sir John, 417 
Jesuits, the, 240, 243, 261, 264, 310 
John, King of England, 80, 84, 85, 

86, 87, 88, 89-96, 97, 138 

■ L, King of France, 126 

II., King of France, 134, 135, 

13°. x 37 
Joseph I., Emperor, 350 

II., Emperor, 409 

, Electoral Prince of Bavaria, 

336. 338 



53 2 



Index. 



Judicature Act, the, 501 

July Revolution, the, 463, 464, 466 

Jumieges, Robert of, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 42, 43, 45 
Junius, the Letters of, 391 
Junot, Marshal, 440 
Junto, the Whig, 335, 349 
Jury, development of, system, 88 
Justice of the Peace, origin of, 88 
Justiciar, the, 58, 62, 66, 72, 76, 85, 

86, 88, 89, 93, 95, 98 
Jutes, the, 9, 10 

Keble, John, 477 
Ken, Bishop, 327 
Ket, Robert, 223 
Khartoum, 504, 505, 508 
Kildare, Fitzgerald, Earl of, 252 

, Earl Gerald of, 252 

Kilkenny, the Statute of, 252 

" King-Maker." See Richard, Earl 

of Warwick 
King's Bench, Court of, 114 
" King's Friends," the, 385, 387 
King's Title, alteration in the, 515 
Kirke, Colonel, 317 
Kitchener, Lord, 507, 510, 511 
K16ber, General, 419, 420 
Knights of St. John, the, 418, 429, 

43i 
Knox, John, 237, 238, 276 
Kruger, President, 507, 508, 509, 511 



*33> 134. 



19. 



Labourers, Statute of, 

145 
Lafayette, 393 
Lake, General, 424, 437 
Lambeth, Treaty of, 98 
Lancaster, Blanche of, 193 

, House of, 152, 176 

, Thomas, Earl of, 117, 118, 

120, 121 
Land League, the, 505 

Tax, the, 335 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

S3- 54. 56, 57. 58 
Langton, Stephen, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, 91, 92, 93, 95 
Languedoc, 134 
Lansdowne, 460 
Lateran Council, the, 36 
Latimer, Hugh, Bishop of Worcester, 

213, 216, 225, 230 
Latimer, Lord, 141, 144 
Laud, WLiiam, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 270, 273, 274, 275, 276, 277, 

285, 374, 477 
Laudabidter, Bull of Hadrian IV., 79 



Lauderdale, 307, 311 
La Vendue, 413, 414, 423 
Law of Edward the Confessor, 60 
, mediaeval and modern con- 
ceptions of, 74 
Lawrence, Sir Henry, 491 

, Sir John, 491, 492 

Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, 

244, 248, 256 
Le Mans, 83 
Lennox, Matthew Stuart, Earl of, 

238, 244 
Leofric, Earl of Mercia, 35, 39, 42, 

43. 44 
Leofvvin, Earl, 43, 46 
Leopold, Duke of Austria, 87 

I., Emperor, 336, 340, 344 

II., Emperor, 410, 411 

I., King of the Belgians, 466 

Leslie, Alexander, 276 

, David, 287, 295 

Levellers, the, 292 
Leven, Leslie, Earl of, 284 
Lewes, the Mise of, 103 
Liberation, the War of, 444, 445 
Licensing Act, the, 327 
Limerick, the Treaty of, 332 
Lincoln, John de la Pole, Earl of, 

193. 194 
Lindisfarne, 16 
Lindsey, Lord, 272, 281 
Lisbon, 386, 440, 442 
Liverpool, Lord, 437, 442, 444, 452, 

454. 455. 457- 459 
Livery and Maintenance, 199 
Llewellyn, the Great, Prince of Wales, 

92, 99 
ap Griffith, Prince of Wales, 105, 

106 
Local Government Act, the, 506 
Lollards, the, 149, 158, 159, 206 
Lombardy, 366, 371, 434, 494 
London, 6, 12, 24, 31, .43, 49, 67, 71, 

73, 94, 96, 179, 185 

, the Preliminaries of, 350 

, the Treaty of, 459 

, Treaty of (1604, with Spaing 

266 
Londonderry, 329 

, Lord, 425, 428, 442, 454, 455 

Londoners, the, 38, 65, 67, 94, 102, 

141, 171, 177, 281 
Longchamp, William, 85, 86 
Lord Protector, 221 
Lords Marchers, the, 105 
Lostwithiel, 285 
Louis VI.. King of France, 63 
VII., King of France, 6j, 69, 

71, 72, 76, 78, 81, 82 



Index. 



533 



Louis VIII., King of France, 96, 97, 98 

IX. , King of France, 102 

X., King of France, 126 

XL, King of France, 182, 183, 

184, 185, 186, 187 

XII., King of France, 198, 

204 

XIII., King of France, 268, 271 

XIV, King of France, 305, 

3°7- 3°9- 3 T 3. 3 r 7. 3 l8 - 3 2 °- 3 21 . 

322, 323, 333, 334, 335, 336, 339, 

340, 346, 349, 350, 356, 357, 408 

XV., King of France, 357, 409 

XVI., King of France, 408, 409, 

410, 411, 413 

XVIIL, King of France, 410, 

44. 5. 447, 457 

Philippe, King of France, 463, 

466, 475, 476 

Loyola, St. Ignatius, 240 
Lucknow, 490, 491, 492 
Lune'ville, the Peace of, 420 
Lusignan, the House of, 83, 87, 90 
Luther, Martin, 206 
Lutterworth, 140, 147 
Luxemburg, Marshal, 334 
Lyndhurst, Lord, 465 
Lyons, Great Council of, 100 
Lytton, Earl of, 503 

Mack, General, 434, 435 
Mackay, General, 328 
Mackintosh, Sir James, 456 
Madras, 376, 377, 381, 383, 405 
Madrid, 267, 345, 346, 349, 440, 444. 
Magdala, 497 

Magna Carta. See Charter of John 
Magnum Concilium. See Great 

Council 
Mahdi, the, 504, 505, 507 
Mahrattas, the, 405, 436, 437, 472 
Maine, 53, 67, 71, 83, 90, 91, 136, 

162, 170, 181 
Main Plot, the, 261, 262 
Major-Generals, the, 299, 300 
Malakoff Hill, 489 
Malcolm I., King of Scots, 30 
II., King of Scots, 40 

III. (Canmore), King of Scot- 
land, 51, 57, 60 

■ IV., King of Scotland, 71 

Malta, 418, 420, 429, 43 t, 450 
Mamelukes, the, 418 
Manchester, Lord, 284, 285, 286, 303 
" Manchester Massacre," the, 452, 

454 
Manning, Henry Edward, 477 
Mansfield, Lord, 387, 397 



Mantes, 53 

Mar, Farl of, Regent, 244 

, the Earl of, 356, 357 

March, Edmund, Earl of, 154, 159, 
160, 169 

, Edward, Earl of. See Edward IV. 

Marches, the Welsh, 155, 158 

Mardyke, 301 

Margaret of Burgundy, sister of Ed- 
ward IV., 183, 194, 195, 196, 197 

Margaret, Queen of Henry VI., 170, 
176, 177, 179, 181, 182, 184, 185, 186 

, Queen of James IV. of Scotland, 

198, 204, 221, 260 

, the Maid of Norway, 106, 107 

Maria of Portugal, Donna, 462, 467 

, Infanta of Spain, 266, 267 

Theresa, wife of Louis XIV., 

307. 336 

Theresa, Empress of Austria, 

365, 366, 367, 377, 378 

Marian Persecution, the, 229, 230, 

231. 255 . 
Marie Antoinette, 410, 414 

Louise, wife of Napoleon, 441 

Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke 

of, 317, 322, 326, 334, 343, 344, 345, 
346, 349, 350, 360 
, Sarah Jennings, Duchess of, 

343. 349. 35o 
Martin, Church of St. , at Canterbury, 

14 

Marprelate Tracts, the, 256 

, Master, Papal Legate, 100 

Martinique, 386, 433, 434 
Martyrs, the Catholic, 293, 311 

, the Protestant, 229, 230, 231 

Mary of Modena, wife of James II., 

321, 322 

Queen of Scots, 217, 218, 221, 

222, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 242, 
244, 245, 246, 247 

, Queen, wife of William III., 

309, 312, 321, 322, 323, 324, 334 

Tudor, 206, 211, 221, 224, 225, 

226-232 

Masham, Mrs., 350, 353 

Masse"na, 442 

Matilda of Scotland, Queen of Henry 

I., 60 
, wife of Emperor Henry V., 63, 

64, 65, 66, 67, 71 
Maximilian I., Emperor of Germany, 

195, 197, 198, 203, 204 
Mayflower, the, 374 
Mazarin, Cardinal, 301, 408 
Medina Sidonia, the Duke of, 247, 

248, 249 



534 



Index. 



Medway, the River, 306 
Meer Jaffir, 381, 403 

Kassim, 403 

Meerut, 490 

Mehemet Ali, 458 

Melbourne, Lord, 465, 466, 470, 471, 

473 
Mellitus, Bishop of London, 15 
Mendoza, Spanish Ambassador, 245 
Mercenaries, 66, 68, 72, 81, 94, 95, 223 
Mercia, 11, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24, 25, 26, 

29. 3 X > 3 2 . 39- 43- 45. 49 
Methodists, the, 372 
Methuen, Lord, 509 
Miguel of Portugal, Dom, 462, 466, 

467 
Milan Decree, the, 439 
Milanese, the, 338, 344, 351, 365, 370 
Militia, Control of the, 280, 289, 304 
Millenary Petition, the, 262 
Milner, Lord, 509 
Ministers of State, Responsibility of, 

144, 149 
Minorca, 351, 378, 386, 396, 398 
Mirabeau, 411 

Mise. See Amiens and Lewes 
Mississippi, the River, 375, 386, 388 
Mitchell, the Monopolist, 267 
Modder River, 510. See also Battles 
Modena, 494 
Mogul, the Great, 376 
Moidart, the Seven Men of, 368 < 
Moldavia, 484 
Moltke, von, 495 
Moluccas, the, 246 
Monasteries, Dissolution of the, 212, 

213, 214, 223 
Monk, George. See Albemarle, Duke 

of 
Monmouth, the Duke of, 311, 312, 

3 l6 > 3*7 
Monopolies, 256, 267, 275 
Monroe Doctrine, the, 458 
Mons, 348 
Montagu, John Neville, Earl of, 181, 

182 

, Earl of Salisbury, 153 

Montague, Charles, 335, 339 
Montcalm, the Marquis of, 380, 381, 

387 
Montfort, Simon de, 99, 101, 102, 103, 

104, 105 

, , the Younger, 103 

Montreal, 380, 381 

Montrose, the Marquis of, 286, 287, 

293 
Moore, Sir John, 440 
Moorish Spain, 69, 197 



Moorshedabad, 381 

Morcar, Earl of Northumbria, 43, 4^, 

45. 49- 5i 
More, Sir Thomas, 205, 207, 209, 212 
Moreau, General, 419 
Mornington, Lord. See Wellesley, 

Marquis 
Mortimer, Roger, 122, 123, 124, 125 

, , Earl, 105 

Mortmain, Statute of, 114 

Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

190, 191, 199 
" Mountain," the, 414 
Mowbray, Thomas, Lord, 155 
Municipal Corporation Act, the, 465 
Murray, James Stuart, Earl of, 238, 

239. 244 

• , Lord George, 369 

Mutinies at Spithead and Nore, 417 
Mutiny Act, the, 327 
Mysore, 405, 406, 420, 436 

Namur, 334 

Nana Sahib, 490, 491 

Nantes, the Edict of, 250, 272, 318, 320 

Napier, Sir Robert, 497 

Naples, Kingdom of, 197, 429, 438 

Napoleon Bonaparte, 407, 414, 416, 

417, 418, 419, 429, 430, 431, 432, 

433. 434. 435- 437. 438, 439. 440. 

442, 444, 445, 447, 448, 449- 45° 

, Abdication of, 445, 449 

, First Consul, 419 

becomes Emperor, 432 

escapes from Elba, 447 

III., 481, 492, 493, 494, 500 

National Assembly, the, 410 

■ Convention, the, 411, 413, 414 

Covenant, the, 276 

Debt, the, 335, 359, 371, 402, 

451, 502 
Nationalists, the Irish, 506 
Nation Newspaper, the, 473 
Navigation Act, the, 296, 456 
Nelson, Admiral, 417, 418, 421, 429, 

433- 434. 435- 436 
Nepaul, 472, 491 
Netherlands, the Kingdom of the, 

450, 466 
, the Spanish, 236, 240, 241, 242, 

244, 246, 247, 249, 301, 307, 309, 

333- 334. 338, 34°. 344- 345. 346, 35 1 
Neville, Alex., Archbishop of York, 

148 
, Anne, Queen of Richard III., 

184, 187 
, George, Archbishop of York, 

182, 183, 184 



Index. 



535 



Neville, Isabella, wife of George, Duke 

of Clarence, 183, 134, 187 
New Amsterdam, 306, 374 
Newcastle, Thomas Pelham, Duke 

of, 365. 369. 378, 384. 385. 386, 387. 

389 

, Henry, fifth Duke of, 488 

, the Earl of, 283, 284, 285 

Programme, the, 506 

New England Colonies, the, 374 

Forest, the, 59, 196 

Newfoundland, 351, 374, 375 
Newman, John Henry, 477, 478 
New Model, the, 286 

Orleans, 446 

Plymouth, 374 

Newport, Treaty of, 289 
New York, 306, 374, 393, 395 
Nev, Marshal, 447, 449 
Nicholas L, Tsar of Russia, 484 
Nigel, Bishop of Ely, 66 
Nightingale, Miss Florence, 489 
Nizam, the, of Hyderabad, 406, 491 
No Addresses, Vote of, 289 
Non-Jurors, the, 327 
Nore, the Mutiny at the, 417 
No-Rent Manifesto, the, 505 
Norfolk, Thomas Howard, third 

Duke of, 213, 214, 2i-6, 217, 219 
, , fourth Duke of, 239, 240, 

242 
Norman Barons, 43, 44, 50, 52, 57, 

59, 63, 65, 66, 71 
Normandy, Duchy of, 23, 38, 42, 44, 

49, 50, 52, 53, 56, 57, 60, 61, 65, 

67, 71, 72, 78, 80, 83, 88, 89, 90, 

91, 93, 98, 102, 134, 162, 168, 169, 

170, 171, 172 
North Briton , the, 387, 421 
North, Lord, 390, 391, 392, 395, 396, 

398, 399 
North's Regulating Act, 404 
Northampton, Assize of, 82 

, Peace of, 124, 125 

Northcote, Sir Stafford, 501 

North German Confederation, the, 

498 

Italian kingdom founded, 494 

Northmen, the. See Danes 
Northumberland, John Dudley, Duke 

of, 221, 223, 224, 226 
, Neville, Earl of, 182, 185 

(See also Montagu) 

, Henry Percy, Earl of, 191 

, Robert Mowbray, Earl of, 57 

Northumbria, n, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 
24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 38, 39, 45, 49, 



Northumbria, Decline of, 19 

, Supremacy of, 16 

Nottingham, Daniel Finch, Earl of, 

3 26 . 335- 343- 349 

, Thomas, Earl of, 148, 150 

Nova Scotia, 351, 375 

Nuncomar, 404 

Nymwegen, the Peace of, 309, 334 

Oates, Titus, 310, 312, 316 
O'Brien, Smith, 476 
Observant, the Friars, 212 
Occasional Conformity Act, the, 353, 

359 
O'Connell, Daniel, 461, 472, 473 
O'Connor, Feargus, 470 
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 50, 52, 56 
Offa, King of Mercia, 20, 21 
Offa's Dyke, 20 
Ohio Company, the, 375 
Oldcastle, Sir John, 159 
Olive Branch Petition, the, 393 
O'Neill, Hugh, 254, 255, 275 

, Shane, 253, 254 

Opium Trade, the, 471 

Orange Free State, the, 509, 510, 511 

, William of (the Silent), 244, 249 

Orangemen, the Society of, 423 
Ordainers, the Lords, 118, 120, 121 
Ordeal, trial by, 33, 77, 82 
Orders in Council, the, 439, 445 
Ordinances, the (of 1311), 118, 121, 144 
Orford, Edward Russell, Lord, 311, 

312, 339, 349 
, Robert Walpole, Earl of, 349, 

355. 358, 359- 3°o. 3 6l > 3 62 . 363. 

364. 365 
Orinoco, the River, 266 
Orissa, 403 
Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 

292 

, the Duke of, 350, 356 

Ormonde, the Earl of, 254 
Ostorius Scapula, 5 
Oswald, King of Northumbria, 16 
Oswy, King of Northumberland, 16, 

17. 19 
Oude, 403, 405, 490 
Outlanders, the, 507, 508, 509 
Overbury, Sir Thomas, 265 
Owen, Glendower, 153, 154, 155, 156 
Oxford, De Vere, Earl of , 199 
, Robert Harley, Earl of, 349, 

35°- 35 2 - 353- 356 

, the Provisions of, 101, 103, 118, 

144 

PAARDEBERG, 510 



53 6 



Index. 



Pacific Ocean, the, 246 
Pakenham, Sir Edward, 446 
Palatinate, the, 266, 267, 271, 346 
Pale, the English, 92, 250, 252, 253 
Pallium, the, 14, 40, 45, 59 
Palmerston, Lord, 442, 460, 466, 467, 

475. 4 8 L 483. 4 8 4. 488, 492, 493, 

494- 496, 497 
Pandulph, Papal Legate, 92 
Papacy, the, 13, 14, 17, 36, 40, 45, 54, 

59, 92, 95, 100, 112, 12S, 138, 207, 

211, 227 

Papal Exactions, 99, 100, 138, 140 

Legates, 67, 80, 8j, 92, 97, 100, 

207, 227 

letters, 20, 54, 78, 113, 211 

States, the, 419, 429, 441, 494 

Paris, 14, 73, 89, 90, 105, 107, 130, 
159, 161, 162, 164, 167, 169, 445, 
447 

, the Peace of (1763), 385, 386 

, (1815), 450 

, (1856), 489 

, the Preliminaries of, 360 

Parish Councils Act, the, 506 
Parker, Matthew, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 235, 555 

, Consecration of Archbishop, 235 

, Bishop of Oxford, 319 

, Sir William Hyde, 421 

Parliament, 95, 102, 103, 107, no, 
114, u8, 121, 124, 208 

, the "Addled," 265 

, Barebone's, 297, 298 

, the First Reformed, 465, 466 

— •, the " Good," 140 

Long," 277, 278, 279, 288, 



— , the 
291 

— , the 
— , the 
— . the 



Mad," 101, 104 
Merciless," 148 
Model," 107, 108, 114, 463 

, the ' ' Short," 276 

Parliamentary Reform, 464 

Parma, the Prince of, 244, 247, 248, 

249 
Parnell, C. S., 505 
Parr, Catherine, sixth wife of Henry 

VIII., 217, 222 
Parsons, Robert, 243 
Partition Treaty, the First (1698), 336, 

338 
, the Second (1700), 336, 338, 

339 
Paterson, William, 335 
Patriots, the, 364 

Paul I., Tsar of Russia, 419, 420, 421 
Paulinus, Bishop of York, 15, 16, 24 
Pax Romana, the, 7 



Pecquigny, Treaty of, 186 

Pedro the Cruel, of Castile, 136, 137 

Peel, Sir Robert, 402, 455, 45 6, 460, 

465. 470, 471. 473. 474- 475. 481, 483 

Peerage Bill, the, 359 

Peers, creation of, 350, 359, 464 

Peishwa, the, of Poona, 405, 436, 437 

Pelham Henry, 365, 367, 371, 378 

Pembroke, Richard Marshall, Earl of 
99 

, William Marshall, Earl of, 

97- 98, 99 

Penda, King of Mercia, 16, 20 

Peninsular War, the, 440, 441, 442, 
444- 445 

Penn, Admiral, 300 

Penny Postage, 479 

People's Charter, the, 470 

Perceval, Spencer, 437, 442, 444 

Percy, Earl of Northumberland, 150 

„ x 54. 155. 156 

Perrers, Alice, 140, 141 

Persia, war with, 492 

Peter des Roches, Bishop of Win- 
chester, 93, 98, 99 

Peter Martyr, the Reformer, 224 

Peter's Pence, 211 

Petitioners and Abhorrers, 312 

Petition of Right, the, 272 

Petre, Father, 318, 319, 320 

Pevensey, 10, 45 

Philip I. of France, 53, 56 

Philip Augustus, King of France, 82, 
83, 86, 87, 89, 90, 91, 92, 96 

IV., King of France, 107, 111, 

112, 113, 117, 126, 127 

V., King of PVance, 126 

VI. (of Valois), King of France, 

126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 134 
of Orleans, Regent in France, 

356, 357. 358, 360 

II., King of Spain, 228, 231, 

236, 241, 242, 247, 249, 250 

III. , King of Spain, 266 

IV., King of Spain, 300, 307, 

33 6 

V., King of Spain, 336, 338, 

339. 340, 344. 346. 348, 349- 35L 

358. 359- 3 6 o. 37i 
Philippa of Hainault, 124, 131, 132, 

140 
Physical Force Party, the, 472, 473, 

476 
Picton, General, 449 
Picts, the, 8, 10, 11, 19 
Pilgrimage of Grace, the, 213, 216 
Pilgrimages, 24, 36, 39, 40, 43 
Pilnitz, the Declaration of, 411, 413 



Index. 



537 



Pisa, Council of, 161 

Pitt, William. See Chatham, Earl of 

(the Younger), 399, 400, 

401, 402, 403, 405, 406, 412, 416, 
419, 421, 424, 425, 426, 428, 429, 
431, 434, 436, 437, 463, 464 

Plague, the Great, 305 

Plantations in Ireland, 253, 254, 275, 

2 79- 2 93- 3 2 9 
Plautius, Aulus, 4, 5 
Pleas of the Crown, 88 
Poitou, 90, 94, 99 
Poland, the Second Partition of, .410, 

416 
Pole, Michael de la, Earl of Suffolk, 

148 
, Reginald, Cardinal, 216, 223, 

227, 228, 229, 231, 232 

, Sir Richard, 215 

Poll-tax, 146 

Pondicherry, 376, 377, 383 
Pontefract, 121, 153, 189 
Ponthieu, 134, 136, 137 
Pontigny, 100 
Pontoise, 161 
Poona, 405 
Poor Law, of 1834, the, 465 

Law Problems, 451, 452, 465 

Priests, the, of Wyclif, 145 

Pope Agatho, 19, 36 

Alexander II., 45, 53 

III., 72, 76, 77, 78 

IV., 101 

V., 161 

Benedict XII., 128 

XIII., i6t 

Boniface VIII., tio, hi, 112, 113 

IX., 161 

Clement VI., 132 

■ VII., 206, 207, 210, 211 

. Yin., 2 6 3 

Gregory the Great, 13, 14, 35, 36 

II.. 17 

VII., 53, 54. 61 

VIII., 83 

XL, 140 

XII, 161 

Hadrian I., 20, 21 

IV., 79 

Honorius, 15 

III., 97 „ 

Innocent II., 66 

III., 89, 90, 91, 92, 93. 94- 

95. 9 6 - 97 

IV., 100, 101 

VII., 161 

VIII., 193 



Pope Innocent XL, 320, 321 

John XXII., 128 

XXI1L, 161 

Julius II., 198, 203 

III., 227, 229 

Leo III., 21 

— IV., 25 

IX., 44 

X., 204, 206 

Martin V., 161, 165 

Nicholas IV., no 

Pascal II., 62 

Paul IV , 231 

Pius IV. , 242 

V. , 242 

VI., 419 

VII., 441 

IX., 478, 494 

Urban II., 59, 62 

V, 138 

VI., 161 

Vitalian, 17 

Zacharias, 36 

Popish Plot, the, 310, 312, 313 

Portland Coalition, the, 399, 405 
, Bentinck, Earl of, 326, 339 

Porto Bello, 364 

Portugal, 250, 305, 343, 386, 429, 439, 
441, 442, 462, 466, 467 

Postnati, the, 264 

Potato Famine, the, 476 

Poyning's Act, 252, 396 

Praemunire, Statute of, 139, 149, 207, 
208, 211 

Pragmatic Sanction, the, 365, 366 

Prague, the Peace of, 498 

Pratt, Chief Justice, 387 

Prayer-book of Edward VI., the first, 
222 

, the second, 224, 227, 235 

, the (of 1559). 235, 255, 299 

, the (of 1662), 304 

, the Scotch, 276 

Prerogative, Royal. 152, 209, 259, 264, 
265, 270, 271, 316 

Presbyterianism, 237, 255, 259, 275, 
276, 278, 285, 288, 289, 304 

Press, the freedom of the, 421, 452 

Pressburg, the Peace of, 435 

Pretoria, 508, 509, 511 

, the Peace of, 513 

Pride's Purge, 289, 297 

Privy Council, the, 353, 375> 3 8 7 

Prophesyings, the, 255 

Protectorate, the, 298-3CI 

Protestantism in Ireland, 331, 332 

Provisions, Bull of, 139 

Provisors, Statute of, 138, 139, 140 



538 



Index. 



Prynne, William, 274 

Public Advertiser, the, 391 

Pulteney, William, 361, 364, 365 

Punjab, the, 491 

Puritans, the, 255, 256, 262, 274 

Purveyance, 95, 143 

Pusey, Dr., 477, 478 

Pym, John, 276, 277, 278, 279, 283 

Quadruple Alliance, the (1718) 

358, 359 
Quatre Bras, 448 
Quebec, capture of, 380, 381 
Quia Emptores, Statute, 114 
" Quo Warranto," writs of, 313, 322 

Raglan, Lord, 486, 487, 488, 489 

Railways, 478, 479 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 250, 261, 262, 

266, 374 
Ramequens, 244 

Rastadt, the Congress of, 417, 410 
R<5, the Island of, 272 
Rebellions against — 

Edward I., 106 

IV.. 183,184 

VI., 223 

Elizabeth, 240 

George I., 356 

II., 367, 368 

Henry I., 60 

II., 80, 81, 82 

IV., 153, 154- 155 

V. , 160 

VI., 171 

VII., 194, 196 

James II., 316, 317 

Mary Tudor, 228 

Richard III., 190, 191 

William I., 50, 51, 52 

II., 56 

Recognitors, 76, 'jj 

Reconciliation with Rome, the, 227, 

228, 229 
Recusants, the penal laws against, 

263, 264, 271 
Redesdale, Robin of, 184 
Redistribution Bill (1884), the, 505 
"Reflections," Burke's, 412 
Reformation, the, in England, 13, 

225, 229, 476 

, the, in Ireland, 252, 253 

, the, in Scotland, 236, 237 

Reform Bill (1832), the, 463, 464, 470 

(1858), the, 493 

(1867), the, 497 

(1884), the, 505 

Regm, the, 5 



Reliefs, feudal, 58,95, 114 
Religion, revival of, 54, 372, 373 
Religious settlement, the (of 1554), 
229, 234 

o T7r the H I559) ' 2 3 4 ' 2 35- 236 

Remodelling of the army, the, 286 

Repeal movement, the, 472, 473 
Representative principle, the, 88, 103, 

108, 113, 463, 464 
" Reservation," 139 
Restoration, the, 291, 303 
Resumption Bill, the, 338 
Revolution Families, the, 391 
Revolution, the " Glorious," 324,355 

411 
Revolutionary Tribunal, the, 415 
Rhode Island, 374, 375 
Riccio, David, 238, 239 
Rich, Edmund, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 99, 100 
Richard I., King of England, 81, 82 
83, 84, 85-89, 106 

II., King of England, 141, 145- 

J 5i. i53, 154 

III., King of England, 187, 188, 

189-191 
Richelieu, Cardinal, 268, 272, 301, 

408 
Ridley, Bishop of London, 224, 226, 

230 
Ridolfi Plot, the, 242 
Rights, the Bill of, 323, 324 
Rinuccini, Papal Nuncio, 292 
Riot Act, the, 356 
Ripon, Treaty of, 277 
Rivers, Anthony, Earl, 188, 189 

, Richard Woodville, Earl, i8q, 

184 J 

Roads, Roman, 6 

Robert I., King of Scotland, 112, 113, 
119, 121, 123, 125 

III., King of Scotland, 154, 155 

of Normandy, 52, 53, 56, 57, 

59, 60, 6i, 63 
Roberts, Lord, 503, 509, 510, 511 
Robespierre, 414, 415 
Robinson, F. J. See Goderich, Lord 

•, Sir Thomas, 378 

Rochefort, 449 

Rochelle, 271, 272 

Rochester, the Earl of, 313, 319 

, Robert Carr, Viscount of. See 

Somerset, Earl of 

, L. Hyde, Earl of, 339 

Rocket, the, 479 
Rockingham, Council of, 59 

, the Marquis of, 387, 389, 390, 

396, 398, 402 



Index. 



539 



Rodney, Admiral, 396, 398 

Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, Justiciar ' 

62, 65, 66 
Rohillas, the, 405 
Rollo, Duke of Normandy, 23 
Romans, the, 3-9 
, withdrawal of, from Britain, 

9, 11 
Rome, 13, 20, 24, 25, 36, 39, 43, 59, 

91, 206 

, Council at, 62 

, feudal relation of England to, 

92, 97, qS, 100, 101 

, feudal relation of Scotland to, 

112, 113 
, rupture with, of Henry VIII., 

209 
Romilly, Samuel, 456 
Rooke, Sir George, 345 
Root and Branch Bill, the, 278 
Rorke's Drift, 503 
Rose, Sir Hugh, 492 
Rosebery, Lord, 506, 507 
Roses, Wars of the, 176-180, 194 
Rotten Boroughs, 463, 464 
Rouen, 53, 90, 91, 130. 161, 168, 169 
Rufus. See William II. 
Rump, the, 289, 291, 292, 296, 297, 

300, 301, 302 
Runnymede, 94 
Rupert, Prince, 281, 283, 284, 285, 

286, 296 
Russell, Admiral, 333, 334- 335 

-, Edward, Lord. See Or ford 

, Lord John, 461, 464, 478, 481, 

488, 492, 494, 497 
Russo-Turkish War, the, 502, 503 
Rutland, Edmund, Earl of, 179 
Rye House Plot, the, 312 
Ryswick, Peace of, 334, 336, 340 

Sacheverell, Dr., 350 

St. Arnaud, Marshal, 486, 488 

Germains, 340 

Giles Church, Edinburgh, 276 

Helena, 309, 450 

. John, Henry. See Bolingbroke 

Lawrence, the river, 375, 380 

Leger, Anthony, Deputy of 

Ireland, 253 

Omer, Jesuit College of, 310 

Paul's Cathedral, 93, 141, 177 

Ruth, General, 332 

Sadowa, 498 
Saladin, 83, 87 

Tithe, the, 83 

Salar Jung, 491 

Salic Law, the, 126, 127, 470 



Salisbury, the Great Gemot at, 53 

, Earl of. See Cecil, Robert 

, Lord, 501, 502, 505, 506, 507, 

508, 513 

, Margaret, Countess of, 215, 216 

, Richard Neville, Earl of, 173, 

177, 179 

, Thomas, Earl of, 165, 166 

, William, Earl of, 93 

Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
320, 327 

Saracens, the, 83 

Saratoga, 393 

Sardinia, 366, 371, 489, 494 

Sarsfield, Patrick, 331, 332 

Savile, Sir George, 397 

Savoy, Duke of, 301, 343, 344 

Saxe, Marshal, 367, 370 

Saxons, the East, 10 

, the South, 10, 11, 16, 20 

, the West, 10, 11, 20, 21, 25, 

26 

Saxon Shore, the, 8, 10 

Saxony, Frederic, Elector of, 206 

Scandinavia, 8, 23, 39 

Schism Act, the, 353, 359 

, the English, 208, 211 

, the Great, 145, 147* l6x 

Schleswig-Holstein question, the, 495, 

498 
Schomberg, Marshal, 331 
Scotland, Acts passed in England 
against, 351 

, claims to throne of, 107 

, first invasion of, 107 

, relation of, to England, 106, 

107, 124 

, second invasion of, ill, 112 

, third invasion of, 113 

, Union of England and, 351, 352 

Scots, the, 8, 10, ii, 30, 65, 81 

Scrope, Archbishop of York, 155 

Scutage, 72, 93, 95, 97- Iir 

Sea power, 432, 436, 439, 45 1 - 45 6 

Search, the Right of, 420 

Secular clergy, the, 32 

Security, the Bill of (Scottish), 351 

Seditious Meetings Act, the, 421 

Self-denying Ordinance, the, 286 

Seminary Priests, the, 243 

Septennial Act, the, 357 

Serfs, 33. See also Villans 

Settlement, the Act of (1661), 329, 331 

, (170 1 )' 339- 35 1 - 35 2 

Seven Bishops, the, 320, 321, 322 
Seven Years' War, the, 376, 377~3 8 3. 

386, 393 
Seymour, Lord Henry, 248, 249 



54-o 



Index. 



Seymour, Jane, third wife of Henry 

VIII., 213, 217 

, William, 260 

Shaftesbury, Ashley Cooper, Earl of, 

3°3- 3°7. 308, 309, 311, 312 

, the Earl of, 480 

Shah Alam, Great Mogul, 403, 405, 

437 
Sharp, Archbishop, 311 
Sheer Ali, 503 
Shelburne, Lord, 398, 399 
Sheriffs, 34, 55, 62, 71, 76, jj, 88, 95 

, Inquest of, jj 

Ship Money, ^75, 276, 278 
Shire-courts, 34, 52, 54, 58, 62, 74, j-j 

moot, the, 34 

Short Service System, the, 501 
Shrewsbury, the Earl of, 326, 334, 

353 

, Talbot, Earl of, 172 

Sicilies, Kingdom of the Two, 438 
Sidmouth, Lord, 428, 429, 430, 43T, 

437. 454. 455 
Sidney, Algernon, 312 
Sieges — 

Acre, 87, 419 

Badajos, 442, 444 

Boulogne, 195 

Calais, 130, 131, 132 

Castillon, 172, 176 

Compiegne, 168 

Delhi, 492 

Enniskillen, 331 

Gibraltar, 398 

Gloucester, 283 

Harfleur, 160 

Hull, 283 

Kimberley, 509, 510 

Ladysmith, 509, 510, 511 

Lille, 346 

Limerick, 331, 332 

Limoges, 137, 142 

Londonderry, 331 

Mafeking, 509, 511 

Orleans, 166, 167 

Sebastopol, 486, 487, 489 

Seringapatam (1792), 406 

(1799), 420 

Silistria, 486 

Terouenne, 203 

Trichinopoly, 377 
Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, 37 
Sihtric, King of Northumbria, 30 
Sikhs, the, 492 
Simnel, Lambert, 194 
Simony, 58, 61 
Sindhia, 437 
Siward, Earl of Northumbria, 42, 43 



Six Acts, the, 452 

Articles, the Bill of, 216, 217, 

222 

Slave trade, the, 246, 403, 437, 465 

Smith, Adam, 402 

Solemn League and Covenant, the, 

284, 287, 293, 304, 311 
Somers, John, 335, 339, 349 
Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke 

of, 171, 172, 176, 185 
, Edward Seymour, Duke of, 218, 

221, 222, 223, 224 

, Henry Beaufort, Duke of, 186 

, Robert Carr, Earl of, 265, 266 

Somme, the river, 130, 160, 164, 186 
Soudan, the, 504, 505, 507, 508 
South Sea Bubble, the, 359, 360 
" Spanish Fury," the, 244 

Succession, the, 335, 336, 338, 

339 

, the War of the, 344 

Speenhamland Parliament, the, 451 
Spion Kop, 510 
Stamp Act, the, 388, 389, 390 
Standing army, 304, 327, 336 
Stanhope, General, 349, 355, 358, 

359. 3 6 o 
Stanley, Thomas, Lord, 191 

, Sir William, 196 

Star Chamber, the Court of, 274, 275, 

277, 278 
States-General, the Dutch, 322, 345 

, the French, 408, 409 

Steam, the Application of, 406, 478, 

479 
Stephen, King of England, 64-68, yi 
Stephenson, George, 478, 479 
Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

43. 45. 53 

Stop of the Exchequer, the, 308 

Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl 
of, 270, 273, 275, 276, 277, 278 

Strathclyde, 11, 21, 30, 57 

Strikes, Industrial, 479 

Strongbow, Earl of Striguil, 79, 250 

Stuart, Lady Arabella, 261 

Subinfeudation, 114 

Submission of the Clergy, the, 209, 211 

Succession Act, the, 211 

, French (in 1328), 126 

Sudbury, Simon, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 146 

Sudeley, Thomas Seymour, Lord, 
221, 222 

Suetonius Paulinus, 5 

Suez Canal, Purchase of Shares, 502 

Suffolk, Edmund de la Pole, Earl of, 
193 



Index. 



54i 



Suffolk, Henry Grey, Duke of, 228 

, Mary, Duchess of, 204, 221, 224, 

260 
, Richard de la Pole, Duke of, 

x 93 
, William de la Pole, Earl of, 

166, 170, 171, 172 
Sunderland, the Earl of, 311, 317, 318, 

3i9. 335- 349. 35o. 358. 361 
Supremacy, the Act of (1535), 211 

'(i559). 234 

Surajah Dowlah, 381 

Surrey, Henry Howard, Earl of, 219 

, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 203, 

204, 205 
Sussex-, Lord Deputy of Ireland, 253 
Swithin, St., Bishop of Winchester, 

24 
Swynford, Catherine, 185, 193 

" Tables," the, 276 

Tacitus, the Germania of, 9 

Talbot, Sir John, 167 

Talents, Ministry of all the, 437 

Tallages, 143 

Tallard, Marshal, 344, 34^ 

Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, 446 

Talmash, Thomas, 334 

Tangiers, 305 

Taunton, 196, 317 

Taxation, 72, 93, 95, 98, no, in, 

137, 143, 146, 205, 275 
Teignmouth burnt, 333 
Temple, Sir William, 311 

, Lord, 399 

Tenants-in-chief, 72, 75, yj, 95, 10 r, 

102 
Tenure of land, 50, 54, 76, 93, 95 
Terror, the Reign of, 414, 415 
Test Act, the, 308, 317, 318, 359, 363, 

461 
Texel, 419 
Thames, the, 4, 10, 24, 25, 26, 27, 40, 

49 
Thanet, the Isle of, 10, 14, 24, 37 
Thegns, 33, 34, 35, 39, 49 
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

73 

Theodore, King of Abyssinia, 497 

of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, 19, 20 

Third Estate, the, 152 

Thirty-nine Articles, the, 477, 500 

Thirty Years' War, the, 266, 296, 300 

Thistlewood, 454 

Thomas Becket, St., Archbishop of 
Canterbury, 72, 73-79 

" Thorough," the policy of, 275, 276 



Three-field system, the, 33, 407 

Throckmorton, Francis, 245 

Thurkill, the Dane, 38 

Thurstan, Archbishop of York, 65 

Ticonderoga, 380, 381 

Tierney, George, 460 

Tilsit, the Treaty of, 438 

Tippoo Sultan, 405, 406, 420, 436 

Tobago, 386, 398, 450 

Todleben, 486, 489 

Togidumnus, 5 

Toleration Act, the, 327 

Tonnage and Poundage, 271, 272, 278 

Torcy, French Envoy, 348 

Tories, 312 

Torres Vedras, the Lines of, 442 

Torrington, Admiral, 333 

Tostig, Earl of Northumbria, 43, 45 

Toulon, 346, 414, 415, 418, 433, 434 

Toulouse, 71, 72, 73, 445 

Touraine, 67, 71, 90, 91, 136 

Tournay, 94, 203, 348, 367 

Tours, 83, 170 

Tourville, Admiral, 333 

Tower Hill, 212, 285 

of London, the, 146, 150, 159, 

171, 183, 184, 185, 189, 197, 223, 228, 

262, 265, 266, 273, 277, 320, 356 
Towns, growth of, 64 

, Roman, in Britain, 6 

Townshend, Lord, 355, 358, 360 

, Charles, 390 

Township, the Anglo-Saxon, 33 
Tractarian Movement, the, 476, 477, 

478 
Trades Union Act, the, 479 
Train-bands, the London, 281 
Transubstantiation, the Doctrine of, 

147, 216, 230, 308 
Transvaal, the, 503, 504, 507, 508, 

509. 5" 
Treason, definition of, under Edward 

III., 277 
Treasonable Practices Act, the, 421 
Treasons Act, the, 327 
Treasurer, the, 66 
Trent, the, 495 

Trent, the Council of, 240, 242, 477 
Triennial Act, the (1641), 278, 304 

, the (1694), 327, 357 

Trinoda Necessitas, the, 35 
Triple Alliance, the (1668), 307 

, the(i 7 i 7 ), 358 

Tromp, Admiral Van, 296 

Troyes, Treaty of, 162 

Tudor, Edmund, Earl of Richmond, 

186, 193 
, Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, 179 



54 2 



Index. 



Tudor, Owen, 179, 193 

Tullibardine, the Marquis of, 368 

Turkey, 484, 486, 489, 502 

Turks, the, 83 

Tuscany, 494 

Tyndal, translator of the Bible, 216 

Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, Earl of, 

3 l8 > 3*9. 3 2 °> 3 2 9- 33 1 
Tyrone, Earl of. See O'Neill 

Ulm, 435, 436 
Ulster, 253, 254, 275, 293 
"Undertakers," the, 265 
Uniformity, the Act of (1549), 222 

. (1552), 224, 227 

. (1559). 235 

, (1662), 304, 305 

Union of England and Ireland, 424- 

426, 428, 473 
of England and Scotland, 352, 

35 6 

Jack, the, 352 

Unionists, the Liberal, 506, 507 
United Irishmen, the Society of, 422, 

423. 424 

States, the, 458, 496, 500, 507 

, recognised by England, 

398 

, War with the, 445, 446 

Unity, national, 55, 64 

Universities, abolition of religious tests 

at the, 500 
University of Oxford, 147 
Ushant, Cape, 248, 415 
Utrecht, the Peace of, 350, 351, 358, 

359- 364. 375 

Valence, Aymer de, 117 

Valenciennes, 414 

Vandals, 8 

Vassals, 53, 56, 82 

Venables, Admiral, 300 

Vendome, Marshal, 346, 349 

Venetia, 494, 498 

Venezuela, 507 

Venice, the Republic of, 417 

Verden., the Duchy of, 358 

Vernon, Admiral, 364 

Versailles, the Peace of, 397, 398 

Verulam, 12 

Vervins, the Treaty of, 250 

Vexin, the, 53 

Vicar-General, Imperial, 128, 130 

, Thomas Cromwell, 212 

Vicarius Britanniarum, the, 6 
Vici, or villages, 9 

Victor Emmanuel, King, 489, 494, 
498 



Victoria, Queen, 469-512 

Vienna, 344, 435, 441 

Vienna, the Congress of, 446, 447, 

45°. 457. 462, 466 
Vienna, the Peace of, 441 
Vikings, the, 24, 25 
Vill. See Township 
Villafranca, the Peace of, 494 
Villans, the, 52, 145, 146, 147 

, the Revolt of the, 134, 145-147 

Villeneuve, Admiral, 433, 434, 435, 436 
Villiers, Charles, 474, 483 
Virginia, 374, 392, 395 

Company, the, 374 

Visigoths, 8, 9, 13 
Voltaire, 408, 409 
Volunteer movement, the, 493 
Vortigern, 10 

Wade, Marshal, 368, 369 
Walcheren, 308, 440, 441 
Wales, 5, 11, 26, 32, 43, 57 

, Conquest of, 105, 106 

, Prince of, 106 

, Reorganisation of, 106 

, the Statute of, 106 

Wall of Antoninus, the, 8 
Wallace, Sir William, 112, 113, 114 
Waller, Sir William, 283, 285, 286 
Wallingford, Treaty of, 67, 71 
Walpole, Sir Robert. See Orford, 

Earl of 
, Commercial Policy of Sir R., 

363 
Walsingham, Sir F. , 233, 245, 256 

, Our Lady of, 215 

Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of 

Rouen, 86 
Waltheof, Earl, 51, 52 
Walworth, Lord Mayor, 146 
Wapentake. See Hundred 
Warbeck, Perkin, 195, 196, 197, 198 
Ward. See Hundred 

, William George, 477 

"Wardship," 58, 60, 95, 114 
Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

203, 210 
Warrenne, John de, Earl of Surrey, 

108, 112 
Warwick, John Dudley, Earl of. See 

Northumberland, Duke of 
, Edward, Earl of, 189, 193, 197, 

21S 
, Richard Beauchamp, Earl of, 

169 
, Richard Neville, Earl of, the 

" King-maker," 173, 177, 179, 180, 

181, 184, 185 



Index. 



543 



See Straf- 



Warwick, Thomas, Earl of, 148, 150 
Washington, 446 

, the Treaty of, 500 

, George, 375, 392, 393 

Watling Street, 26 

Wat Tyler, 146 

Watt, James, 406 

Wedmore, Peace of, 26, 27, 35 

Wellesley, Arthur. See Wellington, 

Duke of 

■ , Marquis, 420, 436 

Wellington, the Duke of, 437, 440, 

441, 442, 444, 445. 447- 44 8 . 46o, 

461, 462, 463, 465 
Welsh, the, 19, 20, 21, 27, 30, 40, 43, 

57 
, War with the, 57 

Wentworth, Sir Thomas 

ford 
Wergild, 34 
Wesley, Charles, 372 

, John, 372, 373 

Wessex, 15, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 30, 34, 

38, 39. 43 

, Supremacy of, 21 

West Indies, the, 246, 250, 300, 317, 

396, 416, 433 
Westminster Abbey, 44, 513 

, the Convention of, 378 

, Council at, 141 

Hall, 189, 277 

, the Provisions of, 102 

., Second Statute of, 114 

Westphalia, the kingdom of, 439 

, the Peace of, 296 

Wexford, 250, 293, 424 
Wharton, Lord, 335, 349 
Whigs, 312 
Whitby, Abbey of, 17 

, Synod of, 16, 17, 19, 35 

White, Sir George, 509, 510 

Ship, the, 63 

Whitfield, George, 372 

Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

255, 262 
Wilberforce, William, 403 

, Henry, 477 

Wilfrid, Bishop of York, 16, 17, 19, 

20, 24 
Wilkes, John, 386, 387, 391, 398, 399, 

421, 464 
William I., 43, 44. 45. 46, 49-55- 5 6 . 
106 

II., 56-59, 106 

III., King of England, 300, 308, 

309, 312, 321, 322, 323, 324, 326-341 



William IV., King of England, 462- 
467, 469 ,. „ . 

I., King of Prussia, 494, 501 

II., German Emperor, 507 

Clito, 63 

, son of "Henry I., 63 

the Lion, King of Scotland, 81, 

82, 85, 92, 106, 107 

, Prince of Orange. See William 

III. 
Wilmington, Spencer Compton, Earl 

of, 362, 365, 367 
Winchelsey, Robert, Archbishop of 

Canterbury, no 
Winchester, 24, 53, 65, 67, 124 

College, 222 

, Statute of, 114 

Windsor, 96, 153 

Witan, the, 34, 35, 38. 4 2 - 43. 44. 49 

, the Northumbrian, 15, 20 

, the, of Wessex, 29 

Wite, the, 34 

Wolfe, General James, 380, 381 

Tone, 423 

Wolseley, Lord, 504 

Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal, 203, 204, 

20=5, 206 , 207, 208 
Woodstock, Thomas of, 190 
Woodville, Sir Edward, 188 

, Elizabeth, Queen of Edward 

IV., 183, 188, 189 
Wool, 127 

Workhouse Test, the, 451, 465 
Worms, the Diet of, 206 

, the Treaty of, 366, 371 

Wulfere, King of Mercia, 16, 19, 20 
Wurtemburg made a kingdom, 438 
Wyatt, SirT., 228 
Wyclif, John, 140, 141, 145. *47. x 49. 

159, 206 
Wykeham, William of, 140, 141, 145 

Yakoob Khan, 503 

Yonge, Sir William, 365 

York, 6, n, 12, 14, 19, 45. 5 1 - I2I > 

123, 155, 185, 208, 277, 284, 285 

, Edmund, Duke of, 169, 170 

, Frederick, Duke of, 414, 419, 4 2 ° 

, James, Duke of. See James II. 

, Richard, Duke of, 169, 172, 176, 

177, 179 

, , , 189, 190 

Yorktown, 395, 398 

Young Ireland Party, the, 473, 47 6 

Zulus, the, 503 



THE END. 



PRINTED IN GKEAT BRITAIN BY 

WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 

3ECCLES. 



•fc-19 97 








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